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Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/frenchpathfinderOOjohn 



French Pathfinders 



in 



North America 




Jacques Cartier. — Frontispiece 



French Pathfinders 



in 



North America 

By 
William Henry Johnson 

Author of "The World's Discoverers," "Pioneer Spaniards 
in North America," etc. 



With Seven Full-Page Plates 



Boston 
Little, Brown, and Company 

1905 



i'WU 30PI0S rS9««(VD"J [ 

OCT 28 iyw& 






Copyright, igo5. 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



All righti reser-ved 



Published October, 1905 



THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 






^<^vi 



FOREWORD 

THE compiler of the following sketches 
does not make any claim to originality. 
He has dealt with material that has been 
used often and again. Still there has seemed to 
him to be a place for a book which should out- 
line the story of the great French explorers in 
such simple, direct fashion as might attract young 
readers. Trying to meet this need, he has sought 
to add to the usefulness of the volume by intro- 
ductory chapters, simple in language, but drawn 
from the best authorities and carefully considered, 
giving a view of Indian society; also, by insert- 
ing numerous notes on Indian tribal connections, 
customs, and the like subjects. 

By selecting a portion of Radisson's journal 
for publication he does not by any means range 
himself on the side of the scholarly and gifted 
writer who has come forward as the champion of 
that picturesque scoundrel, and seriously proposes 



FOREWORD 

him as the real hero of the Northwest, to whom, 
we are told, is due the honor which we have mis- 
takenly lavished on such commonplace persons 
as Champlain, Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle. 

While the present writer is not qualified to 
express a critical opinion as to the merits of the 
controversy about Radisson, a careful reading of 
his journal has given him an impression that the 
greatest part is so vague, so wanting in verifiable 
details, as to be worthless for historical purposes. 
One portion, however, seems unquestionably val- 
uable, besides being exceedingly interesting. It 
is that which recounts his experiences on Lake 
Superior. It bears the plainest marks of truth 
and authenticity, and it is accepted as historical 
by the eminent critic. Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites. 
Therefore it is reproduced here, in abridged form; 
and on the strength of it Radisson is assigned a 
place among the Pathfinders. 



VI 



CONTENTS 



Chapter Page 

I. The Origin and DisTRiBtrriON of the Indian 

Race 3 

II. Something about Indian Social Life ... 15 

III. The Iroquois League 27 

IV. Achievements of Frenchmen in the North of 

America 45 

V. Jacques Cartier, the Discoverer of Canada 53 
VI. Jean Ribaut : the French at Port Royal, in 

South Carolina 67 

VII. Rene de Laudonni^re : Planting a Colony on 

THE St. John's River yy 

VIII. Samuel de Champlain in Nova Scotia . . loi 
IX. Samuel de Champlain (^continued) : The French 
ON the St. Lawrence and the Great 

Lakes 119 

X. Jesuit Missionary Pioneers 147 

XI. Jean Nicollet, Louis Joliet, and Father 
Jacques Marquette : The Discoverers of 

the Mississippi i6g 

XII. Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart 

Explore Lake Superior 187 

vii 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

XIII. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, the First 

Explorer of the Lower Mississippi . . 225 

XIV. La Salle and the Founding of Louisiana . 261 
[Supplement: The Execution of his Plan by 

Bienville] 278 

XV. Father Louis Hennepin 289 

XVI. The V^rendryes Discover the Rocky Moun- 
tains 313 

Books for Reference , • . . 329 

Index 335 



VIU 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

/ 

Jacques Cartier Frontispiece 

From the original painting by F. Riis in tlie Town Hall of 
St. Malo, France 

Fort Caroline Page 82 

From Dc Bry's " Le Moyne de Bienville" 

Samuel de Champlain . " 104 

From the Ducornet portrait 

Fort of the Iroquois "129 

From Lavcrdiere's " CEuvres de Champlain " 

The Murder of La Salle " 278 

From Hennepin 's " A New Discovery of a Vast Country in 
America" 

Le Moyne de Bienville " 284 

From the original painting in the possession of J. A. Allen, Esq., 
Kingston, Ont, 

Falls of St. Anthony « 309 

From Carver's " Travels Through the Interior Parts of North 
America " 



chapter I 



THE ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE 
INDIAN RACE 



French Pathfinders 
in North America 



chapter I 



THE ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE 
INDIAN RACE 

America probably peopled from Asia. — Unity of the American 
Race. — The Eskimo, possibly, an Exception. — Range of the 
Several Groups. 

IN an earlier volume, " Pioneer Spaniards 
in North America," the probable origin of 
the native races of America has been dis- 
cussed. Let us restate briefly the general 
conclusions there set forth. 

It is the universal opinion of scientific men 
that the people whom we call Indians did not 
originate in the Western World, but, in the far 
distant past, came upon this continent from 
another — from Europe, some say; from Asia, 
say others. In support of the latter opinion it 
is pointed out that Asia and America once were 
connected by a broad belt of land, now sunk 

3 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

beneath the shallow Bering Sea. It is easy, then, 
to picture successive hordes of dusky wanderers 
pouring over from the old, old East upon the 
virgin soil of what was then emphatically a new 
world, since no human beings roamed its vast 
plains or traversed its stately forests. 

Human wave followed upon wave, the new 
comers pushing the older ones on. Some wan- 
dered eastward and spread themselves in the region 
surrounding Hudson Bay. Others took a south- 
east course and were the ancestors of the Algori- 
quins, Iroquois, and other families inhabiting the 
eastern territory of the United States. Still others 
pushed their way down the Pacific coast and 
peopled Mexico and Central America, while yet 
others, driven no doubt by the crowding of great 
numbers into the most desirable regions of the 
isthmus, passed on into South America and grad- 
ually overspread it. 

Most likely these hordes of Asiatic savages 
wandered into America during hundreds of years . 
and no doubt there was great diversity among 
them, some being far more advanced in the arts 
of life than others. But the essential thing to 
notice is that they were all of one blood. Thus 
their descendants, however different they may 

4 



THE INDIAN RACE 

have become in language and customs, constitute 
one stock, which we call the American Race. 
The peoples who reared the great earth-mounds 
of the Middle West, those who carved the curi- 
ous sculptures of Central America, those who 
built the cave-dwellings of Arizona, those who 
piled stone upon stone in the quaint pueblos of 
New Mexico, those who drove Ponce de Leon 
away from the shores of Florida, and those who 
greeted the Pilgrims with, "Welcome, English- 
men ! " — all these, beyond a doubt, were of one 
widely varying race. 

To this oneness of all native Americans there 
is, perhaps, a single exception. Some writers look 
upon the Eskimo as a remnant of an ancient 
European race, known as the " Cave-men " be- 
cause their remains are found in caves in Western 
Europe, always associated with the bones of arctic 
animals, such as the reindeer, the arctic fox, and 
the musk-sheep. From this fact it seems that 
these primitive men found their only congenial 
habitation amid ice and snow. Now, the Eskimo 
are distinctly an arctic race, and in other partic- 
ulars they are amazingly like these men of the 
caves who dwelt in Western Europe when it had 
a climate like that of Greenland. The lamented 

5 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Dr. John Fiske puts the case thus strongly : " The 
stone arrow-heads, the sewing-needles, the neck- 
laces and amulets of cut teeth, and the daggers 
made from antler, used by the Eskimos, resemble 
so minutely the implements of the Cave-men, 
that if recent Eskimo remains were to be put into 
the Pleistocene caves of France and England, they 
would be indistinguishable in appearance from the 
remains of the Cave-men which are now found 

there." 

Further, these ancient men had an astonishing 
talent for delineating animals and hunting scenes. 
In the caves of France have been found carvings 
on bone and ivory, probably many tens of thou- 
sands of years old, which represent in the most 
life-like manner mammoths, cave-bears, and other 
animals now extinct. Strangely enough, of all 
existing savage peoples the Eskimo alone possess 
the same faculty. These circumstances make it 
probable that they are a remnant of the otherwise 
extinct Cave-men. If this is so, their ancestors 
probably passed over to this continent by a land- 
connection then existing between Northern Europe 
and Northern America, of which Greenland is a 
survival. 

From the Eskimo southward to Cape Horn 
6 



THE INDIAN RACE 

we find various branches of the one American 
race. First comes the Athapascan stock, whose 
range extends from Hudson Bay westward through 
British America to the Rocky Mountains. One 
branch of this family left the dreary regions of 
almost perpetual ice and snow, wandered far down 
toward the south, and became known as the roam- 
ing and fierce Apaches, Navajos, and Lipans of 
the burning southwestern plains. 

Immediately south of the Athapascans was the 
most extensive of all the families, the Algonquin. 
Their territory stretched without interruption 
westward from Cape Race, in Newfoundland, to 
the Rocky Mountains, on both banks of the St. 
Lawrence and the Great Lakes. It extended 
southward along the Atlantic seaboard as far, 
perhaps, as the Savannah River. This family 
embraced some of the most famous tribes, such as 
the Abnakis, Micmacs, Passamaquoddies, Pequots, 
Narragansetts, and others in New England ; the 
Mohegans, on the Hudson ; the Lenape, on the 
Delaware; the Nanticokes, in Maryland; the 
Powhatans, in Virginia ; the Miamis, Sacs and 
Foxes, Kickapoos and Chippeways, in the Ohio 
and Mississippi Valleys ; and the Shawnees, on 
the Tennessee. 

7 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

This great family is the one that came most in 
contact and conflict with our forefathers. The 
Indians who figure most frequently on the bloody 
pages of our early story were Algonquins. This 
tribe has produced intrepid warriors and saga- 
cious leaders. 

Its various branches represent a very wide 
range of culture. Captain John Smith and Cham- 
plain, coasting the shores of New England, found 
them closely settled by native tribes living in 
fixed habitations and cultivating regular crops of 
corn, beans, and pumpkins. On the other hand, 
the Algonquins along the St. Lawrence, as well 
as some of the western tribes, were shiftless and 
roving, growing no crops and having no settled 
abodes, but depending on fish, game, and berries 
for subsistence, famished at one time, at another 
gorged. Probably the highest representatives of 
this extensive family were the Shawnees, at its 
southernmost limit. 

Like an island in the midst of the vast Algon-. 
quin territory was the region occupied by the 
Huron-Iroquois family. In thrift, intelligence, 
skill in fortification, and daring in war, this stock 
stands preeminent among all native Americans. 
It included the Eries and Hurons, in Canada; 

8 



THE INDIAN RACE 

the Susquehannocks, on the Susquehanna ; and 
the Conestogas, also in Pennsylvania. But by far 
the most important branch was the renowned 
confederacy called the Five Nations. This in- 
cluded the Senecas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Onei- 
das, and Mohawks. These five tribes occupied 
territory in a strip extending through the lake re- 
gion of New York. At a later date a kindred 
people, the Tuscaroras, who had drifted down 
into Carolina, returned northward and rejoined 
the league, which thereafter was known as the 
Six Nations. This confederacy was by far the 
most formidable aggregation of Indians within 
the territory of the present United States. It 
waged merciless war upon other native peoples 
and had become so dreaded, says Dr. Fiske, that 
at the cry "A Mohawk!" the Indians of New 
England fled Uke sheep. It was especially hos- 
tile to some alien branches of its own kindred, 
the Hurons and Eries in particular. 

South of the Algonquins was the Maskoki 
group of Indians, of a decidedly high class, com- 
prising the Creeks, or Muskhogees, the Choc- 
taws, the Chickasaws, and, later, the Seminoles. 
They occupied the area of the Gulf States, from 
the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. The 

9 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

building of the Ohio earthworks is by many stu- 
dents attributed to the ancestors of these south- 
ern tribes, and it was they who heroically fought 
the Spanish invaders. 

The powerful Dakota family, also called Sioux, 
ranged over territory extending from Lake 
Michigan to the Rocky Mountains and covering! 
the most of the valley of the Missouri. 

The Pawnee group occupied the Platte valley, 
in Nebraska, and the territory extending thence 
southward ; and the Shoshonee group had for its 
best representatives the renowned Comanches, 
the matchless horsemen of the plains. 

On the Pacific coast were several tribes, but 
none of any special importance. In the Colum- 
bia and Sacramento valleys were the lowest speci- 
mens of the Indian race, the only ones who may 
be legitimately classed as savages. All the others 
are more properly known as barbarians. 

In New Mexico and Arizona is a group of re- 
markable interest, the Pueblo Indians, who inhabit 
large buildings (pueblos) of stone or sun-dried 
brick. In this particular they stand in a class 
distinct from all other native tribes in the United 
States. They comprise the Zunis, Moquis, 
Acomans, and others, having different languages, 

lo 



THE INDIAN RACE 

but standing on the same plane of culture. In 
many respects they have advanced far beyond 
any other stock. They have specially cultivated 
the arts of peace. Their great stone or adobe 
dwellings, in which hundreds of persons live, 
reared with almost incredible toil on the top of 
nearly inaccessible rocks or on the ledges of deep 
gorges, were constructed to serve at the same 
time as dwelling-places and as strongholds 
against the attacks of the roaming and murdering 
Apaches. These people till the thirsty soil of 
their arid region by irrigation with water con- 
ducted for miles. They have developed many 
industries to a remarkable degree, and their pot- 
tery shows both skill and taste. 

These high-class barbarians are especially in- 
teresting because they have undergone little 
change since the Spaniards, under Coronado, first 
became acquainted with them, 364 years ago. 
They still live in the same way and observe the 
same strange ceremonies, of which the famous 
" Snake-dance " is the best known. They are, 
also, on a level of culture not much below that 
of the ancient Mexicans; so that from the study 
of them we may get a very good idea of the 
people whom Cortes found and conquered. 

II 



Chapter II 

SOMETHING ABOUT INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE 



chapter II 

SOMETHING ABOUT INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE 

Mistakes of the Earliest European Visitors as to Indian Soci- 
ety and Government. — How Indian Social Life originated. 
— The Family Tie the Central Principle. — Gradual Devel- 
opment of a Family into a Tribe. — The Totem. 

THE first white visitors to America found 
men exercising some kind of authority, 
and they called them kings, after the 
fashion of European government. The 
Spaniards even called the head-chief of the Mex- 
icans the "Emperor Montezuma." There was 
not a king, still less an emperor, in the whole of 
North America. Had these first Europeans 
understood that they were face to face with men 
of the Stone Age, that is, with men who had not 
progressed further than our own forefathers had 
advanced thousands of years ago, in that dim 
past when they used weapons and implements of 
stone, and when they had not as yet anything like 
written language, they would have been saved 
many blunders. They would not have called na- 
tive chiefs by such high-sounding titles as " King 

15 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Powhatan " and " King Philip." They would 
not have styled the simple Indian girl, Poca- 
hontas, a princess ; and King James, of England, 
would not have made the ludicrous mistake of 
being angry with Rolfe for marrying her, because 
he feared that when her father died, she would 
be entitled to "the throne," and Rolfe would 
claim to be King of Virginia ! 

The study of Indian life has this peculiar In- 
terest, that it gives us an insight into the thinking 
and acting of our own forefathers long before the 
dawn of history, when they worshiped gods very 
much like those of the Indians. 

All the world over, the most widely separated 
peoples in similar stages of development exhibit 
remarkably similar ideas ^nd customs, as if one 
had borrowed from the other. There is often a 
curious resemblance between the myths of some 
race In Central Africa and those of some heathen 
tribe in Northern Europe. The human mind, 
under like conditions, works in the same way and 
produces like results. Thus, in studying pictures 
of Indian life as it existed at the Discovery, we 
have before us a sort of object-lesson in the 
condition of our own remote ancestors. 

Now, the first European visitors made serious 
i6 



INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE 

irrors in describing Indian lifb. They applied 
European standards of judgment to things In- 
ilian. A tadpole does not look in the least like 
I frog. An uninformed person who should find 
^ne in a pool, and, a few weeks later, should find 
I frog there, would never imagine that the tadpole 
lad changed into the frog. Now, Indian society 
Bvas in what we may call the tadpole stage. It 
was quite unlike European society, and yet it 
contained exactly the same elements as those out 
of which European society gradually unfolded itself 

long ago. 

Indian society grew up in the most natural 
jway out of the crude beginnings of all society. 
iLet us consider this point for a moment. Sup- 
pose human beings of the lowest grade to be liv- 
ing together in a herd, only a little better than 
beasts, what influence would first begin to elevate 
them? Undoubtedly, parental affection. In- 
deed, mother-love is the foundation-stone of all 
our civilization. On that steadfast rock the rude 
beginnings of all social life are built. Young an- 
imals attain their growth and the ability to provide 
for themselves very early. The parents' watch- 
ful care does not need to be long exercised. The 
offspring, so soon as it is weaned, is quickly for- 

17 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

gotten. Not so the young human being. Its 
brain requires a long time for its slow maturing. . 
Thus, for years, without its parents' care it would ' 
perish. The mother's love is strengthened by 
the constant attention which she must so long give 
to her child, and this is shared, in a degree, b^ 
the father. At the same time, their common in- 
terest in the same object draws them closer to- 
gether. Before the first-born is able to find its 
own food and shelter other children come, and 
so the process is continually extended. Thus 
arises the family, the corner-stone of all life that 
is above that of brutes. 

But the little household, living in a cave and 
fighting hand to hand with wild beasts and equally 
wild^ men, has a hard struggle to maintain itself. 
In time, however, through the marriage of the 
daughters — for in savage life the young men 
usually roam off and take wives elsewhere, while 
the young women stay at home — instead of the 
original single family, we have the grown daugh- 
ters, with their husbands, living still with their 
parents and rearing children, thus forming a 
group of families, closely united by kinship. In 
the next generation, by the same process con- 
tmued, we have a dozen, perhaps twenty, families, 

i8 



INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE 

all closely related, and living, it may be, under 
one shelter, the men hunting and providing food 
for the whole group, and the women working 
together and preparing the food in common. 

Moreover, they all trace their relationship 
through their mothers, because the women are 
the home-staying element. In our group of 
families, for instance, all the women are descend- 
ants of the original single woman with whom 
we began; but the husbands have come from 
elsewhere. This is no doubt the reason why 
among savages it seems the universal practice 
to trace kinship through the mother. Again, 
in such a little community as we have supposed,' 
the women, being all united by close ties of 
blood, are the ruling element. The men may 
beat their wives, but, after all, the women, if they 
join together against any one man, can put him 
out and remain in possession. 

These points it is important to bear in mind, 
because they explain what would otherwise ap- 
pear very singular features of Indian life. For 
instance, we understand now why a son does not 
inherit anything, not so much as a tobacco-pipe, 
at his father's death. He is counted as the 
mother's child. For the same reason, if the 

19 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

mother has had more than one husband, and 
children by each marriage, these are all counted 
as full brothers and sisters, because they have 
the same mother. 

Such a group of families as has been supposed 
is called a clan, or in Roman history a gens. It 
may be small, or it may be very numerous 
The essential feature is that it is a body of 
people united by the tie of common blood. It 
may have existed for hundreds of years and have 
grown to thousands of persons. Some of the 
clans of the Scotch Highlands were quite large, 
and it would often have been a hopeless puzzle 
to trace a relationship running back through 
many generations. Still, every Cameron knew 
that he was related to all the other Camerons 
every Campbell to all the other Campbells, and 
he recognized a clear duty of standing by every 
clansman as a brother in peace and in war. We 
see thus that the clan organization grows natu- 
rally out of the drawing together of men to 
strengthen themselves in the fierce struggle of 
savage life. The clan is simply an extension of 
the family. The family idea still runs through 
it, and kinship is the bond that holds together 
all the members. 

20 



INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE 

Now, this was just the stage of social progress 
that the Indians had reached at the Discovery. 
Their society was organized on the basis of the 
clan, and it bore all the marks of its origin. 

Indians, however, have not any family names. 
Something, therefore, was needed to supply the 
lack of a common designation, so that the mem- 
bers of a clan might know each other as such, 
however widely they might be scattered. This 
lack was supplied by the clan-symbol, called a 
totem. This was always an animal of some kind, 
and an image of it was often rudely painted over 
a lodge-entrance or tattooed on the clansman's 
body. All who belonged to the clan of the 
Wolf, or the Bear, or the Tortoise, or any other, 
were supposed to be descended from a common 
ancestress; and this kinship was the tie that 
held them together in a certain alliance, though 
living far apart. It mattered not that the origi- 
nal clan had been split up and its fragments 
scattered among several different tribes. The 
bond of clanship still held. If, for example, a 
Cayuga warrior of the Wolf clan met a Seneca 
warrior of the same clan, their totem was the 
same, and they at once acknowledged each other 
as brothers. 

21 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Perhaps we might illustrate this peculiar rela- 
tion by our system of college fraternities. Sup- 
pose that a Phi-Beta- Kappa man of Cornell meets 
a Phi-Beta-Kappa man of Yale. Immediately 
they recognize a certain brotherhood. Only the 
tie of clanship is vastly stronger, because it 
rests not on an agreement, but on a real blood 
relationship. 

According to Indian ideas, a man and a woman 
of the same clan were too near kindred to marry. 
Therefore a man must always seek a wife in 
some other clan than his own ; and thus each 
family contained members of two clans. 

The clan was not confined to one neighbor- 
hood. As it grew, sections of it drifted away 
and took up their abode in different localities. 
Thus, when the original single Iroquois stock 
became split into five distinct tribes, each con- 
tained portions of eight clans in common. Some- 
times it happened that, when a clan divided, a 
section chose to take a new totem. Thus arose 
a fresh centre of grouping. But the new clan 
was closely united to the old by the sense of kin- 
ship and by constant intermarriages. This pro- 
cess of splitting and forming new clans had gone 
on for a long time among the Indians — for how 

22 



INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE 

many hundreds of years, we have no means of 
knowing. In this way there had arisen groups 
of clans, closely united by kinship. Such a group 
we call 2iphratry. 

A number of these groups living in the same 
region and speaking a common dialect constituted 
a larger union which we sometimes call a nation, 
more commonly a tribe. 

This relation may be illustrated by the familiar 
device of a family-tree, thus : 




23 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Here we see eleven clans, all descended from a 
common stock and speaking a common dialect, 
composing the Mohegan Tribe. Some of the 
smaller tribes, however, had not more than three 
clans. 

The point that we need to get clear in our 
minds is that an Indian tribe was simply a huge 
family, extended until it embraced hundreds or 
even thousands of souls. In many cases organi- 
zation never got beyond the tribe. Not a few 
tribes stood alone and isolated. But among 
some of the most advanced peoples, such as the 
Iroquois, the Creeks, and the Choctaws, related 
tribes drew together and formed a confederacy or 
league, for mutual help. The most famous 
league in Northern America was that of the 
Iroquois. We shall describe it in the next chap- 
ter. It deserves careful attention, both because 
of its deep historical interest, and because it 
furnishes the best-known example of Indian 
organization. 



24 



Chapter III 

THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 



Chapter III 

THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

" mZ °'S" League. -Natural Growth of Indian Govern- 
Ir A~ "°:r.^"*^°"*y ^-« «-ercised, how divided. - Pop- 
ular Assembhes. - Public Speaking. - Community Life. "^ 

ORIGINALLY the Iroquois people 
was one, but as the parent stock grew 
large, it broke up into separate groups. 
Dissensions arose among these, and 
they made war upon one another. Then, accord- 
ing to their legend, Hayawentha, or Hiawatha 
whispered into the ear of Daganoweda, an Onon- 
daga sachem, that the cure for their ills lay in 
union. This wise counsel was followed. The five 
tribes known to Englishmen as the Mohawks, the 
Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the 
Senecas — their Indian names are different and 
much longer -buried the hatchet and formed 
a confederacy which grew to be, after the Aztec 
League in Mexico, the most powerful Indian 
organization in North America. It was then 
known as "The Five Nations." 

27 



FRENCH PATHFINEER 

About 17 1 8, one of the original branches, the 
Tuscaroras, which had wandered away as far as 
North Carolina, pushed by white men hungry 
for their land, broke up their settlements, took 
up the line of march, returned northward, and 
rejoined the other branches of the parent stem. 
From this time forth the League is known in his- 
tory as "The Six Nations," the constant foe of 
the French and ally of the English. The Indian 
name for it was " The Long House," so called 
because the wide strip of territory occupied by it 
was in the shape of one of those oblong structures 
in which the people dwelt. 

When the five tribes laid aside their strife, the 
fragments of the common clans in each re-united 
in heartiest brotherhood and formed an eightfold 
bond of union. On the other hand, the Iroquois 
waged fierce and relentless war upon the Hurons 
and Fries, because, though they belonged to the 
same stock, they refused to join the League. 
This denial of the sacred rie of blood was re- 
garded by the Iroquois as rank treason, and they 
punished it with relentless ferocity, harrying and 
hounding the offending tribes to destrucrion. 

Indian government, like Indian society, was 
just such as had grown up naturally out of the 

28 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

conditions. It was not at all like government 
among civilized peoples. In the first place, there 
were no written laws to be administered. The 
place of these was taken by public opinion and 
tradition, that is, by the ideas handed down from 
one generation to another and constantly dis- 
cussed around the camp-fire and the council-fire. 
Every decent Indian was singularly obedient to 
this unwritten code. He wanted always to do 
what he was told his fathers had been accustomed 
to do, and what was expected of him. Thus 
there was a certain general standard of conduct. 
Again, the men who ruled, though they were 
formally elected to office, had not any authority 
such as is possessed by our judges and magis- 
trates, who can say to a man, " Do thus," and 
compel him to obey or take the consequences. 
The influence of Indian rulers was more like 
that of leading men in a civilized community : 
it was chiefly personal and persuasive, and it was 
exerted in various indirect ways. If, for example, 
it became a question how to deal with a man who 
had done something violently opposed to Indian 
usage or to the interest of the tribe, there was not 
anything like an open trial, but the chiefs held a 
secret council and discussed the case. If they 

29 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

decided favorably to the man, that was an end of 
the matter. On the other hand, if they agreed 
that he ought to die, there was not any formal 
sentence and public execution. The chiefs simply 
charged some young warrior with the task of 
putting the offender out of the way. The chosen 
executioner watched his opportunity, fell upon 
his victim unawares, perhaps as he passed through 
the dark porch of a lodge, and brained him with 
his tomahawk. The victim's family or clan 
made no demand for reparation, as they would 
have done if he had been murdered in a private 
feud, because public opinion approved the deed, 
and the whole power of the tribe would have 
been exerted to sustain the judgment of the chiefs, 
According to our ideas, which demand a fair 
and open trial for every accused person, this was 
most abhorrent despotism. Yet it had one very 
important safeguard : it was not like the arbitrary 
will of a single tyrant doing things on the im-: 
pulse of the moment. Indians are eminently 
deliberative. They are much given to discussing 
things and endlessly powwowing about them. 
They take no important step without talking it 
over for days. Thus, in such a case as has been 
supposed, there was general concurrence in the 

30 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

judgment of the chiefs, because they were under- 
stood to have canvassed the matter carefully, and 
their decision was practically that of the tribe. 

This singular sort of authority was vested in 
two kinds of men ; sachems, who were concerned 
with the administration of the tribal affairs at all 
times, and war-chiefs, whose duty was limited to 
leadership in the field. The sachems, therefore, 
constituted the real, permanent government. Of 
these there were ten chosen in each of the five 
tribes. Their council was the governing body of 
the tribe. In these councils all were nominally 
equals. But, naturally, men of strong personality 
exercised peculiar power. The fifty sachems of 
the five tribes composed the Grand Council which 
was the governing body of the League. In its 
deliberations each tribe had equal representation 
through its ten sachems. But the Onondaga na- 
tion, being situated in the middle of the five, and 
the grand council-fire being held in its chief 
town, exercised a preponderating influence in these 
meetings. 

Besides the Grand Council and the tribal coun- 
cil, there were councils of the minor chiefs, and 
councils of the younger warriors, and even coun- 
cils of the women, for a large part of an Indian's 

31 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

time was taken up with powwowing. Besides 
these formal deliberative bodies, there were gather- 
ings that were a sort of rude mass-meeting. If a 
question of deep interest was before the League 
for discussion, warriors flocked by hundreds from 
all sides to the great council-fire in the Onondaga 
nation. The town swarmed with visitors. Every 
lodge was crowded to its utmost capacity ; tem- 
porary habitations rose, and fresh camp-fires 
blazed on every side, and even the unbounded 
Indian hospitality was strained to provide for the 
throng of guests. Thus, hour after hour, and 
day after day, the issue was debated in the pres- 
ence of hundreds, some squatting, some lying at 
full length, all absolutely silent except when 
expressing approval by grunts. 

The discussion was conducted in a manner 
that would seem to us exceedingly tedious. Each 
speaker, before advancing his views, carefully re- 
hearsed all the points made by his predecessors. 
This method had the advantage of making even 
the dullest mind familiar with the various aspects 
of the subject, and it resulted in a so thorough 
sifting of it that when a conclusion was reached, 
it was felt to be the general sense of the meeting. 

From this account it will be evident that public 

32 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

speaking played a large part in Indian life. This 
fact will help us to account for ^ the remarkable 
degree of eloquence sometimes displayed. If we 
should think of the Indian as an untutored sav- 
age, bursting at times into impassioned oratory, 
under the influence of powerful emotions, we 
should miss the truth very widely. The fact is, 
there was a class of professional speakers, who 
had trained themselves by carefully listening to 
the ablest debaters among their people, and had 
stored their memories with a large number of 
stock phrases and of images taken from nature. 
These metaphors, which give to Indian oratory 
its peculiar character, were not, therefore, sponta- 
neous productions of the imagination, but formed 
a common stock used by all speakers as freely as 
orators in civilized society are wont to quote 
great authors and poets. Among a people who 
devoted so much time to public discussion^ a for- 
cible speaker wielded great influence. One of 
the sources of the power over the natives of 
La Salle, the great French explorer, lay in the fact 
that he had thoroughly mastered their method of 
oratory and could harangue an audience in their 
own tongue like one of their best speakers. 
The subject of the chiefship is a very interest- 

3 63 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

ing one. As has already been explained, a son 
did not inherit anything from his father. There- 
fore nobody was entitled to be a chief because his 
father had been one. Chiefs were elected wholly 
on the ground of personal qualities. Individual 
merit was the only thing that counted. More- 
over, the chiefs were not the only men who could 
originate a movement. Any warrior might put 
on his war-paint and feathers and sing his war- 
song. As nftany as were willing might join him, 
and the party file away on the war-path without a 
single chief. If such a voluntary leader showed 
prowess and skill, he was sure to be some day 
elected a chief. 

It is very interesting to reflect that just this 
free state of things existed thousands of years 
ago among our own ancestors in Europe. At 
that time there were no kings claiming a " divine 
right" to govern their fellow men. The chiefs 
were those whose courage, strength, and skill in 
war made them to be chosen " rulers of men," to 
use old Homer's phrase. If their sons did not 
possess these qualities, they remained among the 
common herd. But there came a time when, here 
and there, sonie mighty warrior gained so much 
wealth in cattle and in slaves taken in battle, that 

'34 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

he was able to bribe some of his people and to 
frighten others into consenting tha.t his son should 
be chief after him. If the son was strong enough 
to hold the office through his own life and to 
hand it to his son, the idea soon became fixed 
that the chiefship belonged in that particular 
family. 

This was the beginning of kingship. But our 
aborigines had not developed any such absurd 
notion as that there are particular families to which 
God has given the privilege of lording it over 
their fellow men. They were still in the free 
stage of choosing their chiefs from among the 
men who served them best. We may say with 
confidence that there was not an emperor, or a 
king, or anything more than an elective chief in 
the whole of North America. 

Not only had nobody the title and office of a 
king among the Indians; nobody had anything 
like kingly authority. Rulership was not vested 
in any one man, but in the council of chiefs. This 
feature, of course, was very democratic. And 
there was another that went much further in the 
same direction: almost all property was held 
in common. For instance, the land of a tribe 
was not divided among individual owners, but be- 

35 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

longed to the whole tribe, and no part of it couU 
be bartered away without the entire tribe's con^ 
sent. A piece might be temporarily assigned tc 
a family to cultivate, but the ownership of it rC' 
mained in the whole tribe. This circumstanc( 
tended more than anything else to prevent th( 
possibility of any man's raising himself to kinglj 
power. Such usurpations commonly rest upoi 
large accumulations of private property of some 
kind. But among a people not one of whon 
owned a single rood of land, who had no flocks 
and herds, nor any domestic animals whatever 
except dogs, and among whom the son inheritec 
nothing from his father, there was no chance foi 
anybody to gain wealth that would raise hin 
above his fellows. 

Thus we see that an Indian tribe was in manj 
respects an ideal republic. With its free discus- 
sion of all matters of general interest ; with au 
thority vested in a body of the fittest men ; wit! 
the only valuable possession, land, held by the 
whole tribe as one great family ; in the entire ab 
sence of personal wealth ; and with the unlimitec 
opportunity for any man possessing the qualities 
that Indians admire to raise himself to influence 
there really was a condition of affairs very like 

36 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

that which philosophers have imagined as the 
best conceivable state of human society for pre- 
serving individual freedom. 

Even the very houses of the Indians were 
adapted to community-life. They were built, 
not to shelter families, but considerable groups 
of families. One very advanced tribe, the Man- 
dans, on the upper Missouri, built circular houses. 
But the most usual form, as among the Iroquois, 
was a structure very long in proportion to its 
width. It was made of stout posts set upright 
in the earth, supporting a roof-frame of light 
poles slanting upward and fastened together at 
their crossing. Both walls and roof were covered 
with wide strips of bark held in place by slender 
poles secured by withes. Heavy stones also were 
laid on the roof to keep the bark in place. At 
the top of the roof a space of about a foot was 
left open for the entrance of light and the escape 
of smoke, there being neither windows nor chim- 
neys. At either end was a door, covered com- 
monly with a skin fastened at the top and loose 
at the bottom. In the winter-season these en- 
trances were screened by a porch. 

In one of these long houses a number of fami- 
lies lived together in a way that carried out in 

37 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

all particulars the idea of one great household. 
Throughout the length of the building, on both 
sides, were partitions dividing off spaces a few 
feet square, all open toward the middle like wide 
stalls in a stable. Each of these spaces was occu- 
pied by one family and contained bunks in which 
they slept. In the aisles, between every four of 
these spaces, was a fire which served the four fam- 
ilies. The number of fires in a lodge indicated, 
quite nearly, the number of persons dwelling in 
it. To say, for instance, a lodge of five fires, 
meant one that housed twenty families. 

This great household lived together according 
to the community-idea. The belongings of indi- 
viduals, even of individual families, were very few. 
The produce of their fields of corn, beans, pump- 
kins, and sunflowers was held as common prop- 
erty ; and the one regular meal of the day was a 
common meal, cooked by the squaws and served 
to each person from the kettle. The food re- 
maining over was set aside, and each person might 
help himself to it as he had need. If a stranger 
came in, the squaws gave him to eat out of the 
common stock. In fact, Indian hospitality grew 
out of this way of living in common, A single 
family would frequently have been " eaten out of 

38 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

house and home," if it had needed to provide out 
of its own resources for all the guests that might 
suddenly come upon it. 

We are apt to think of the Indian as a silent, 
reserved, solitary being. Nothing could be fur- 
ther from the truth. However they may appear 
in the presence of white men, among themselves 
Indians are a very jolly set. Their life in such a 
common dwelling as has been described was in- 
tensely social in its character. Of course, privacy 
was out of the question. Very little took place 
that was not known to all the inmates. And we 
can well imagine that when all were at home, an 
Indian lodge was anything else than a house of 
silence. Of a winter evening, for instance, with 
the fires blazing brightly, there was a vast deal of 
boisterous hilarity, in which the deep guttural 
tones of the men and the shrill voices of the 
squaws were intermingled. Around the fires 
there were endless gossiping, story-telling, and 
jesting. Jokes, by no means delicate and de- 
cidedly personal, provoked uproarious laughter, 
in which the victim commonly joined. 

A village, composed of a cluster of such abodes 
standing without any order and enclosed by a 
stockade, was, at times, the scene of almost end- 

39 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

less merry-making. Now it was a big feast ; now 
a game of chance played by two large parties 
matched against each other, while the lodge was 
crowded almost to suffocation by eager specta- 
tors ; now a dance, of the peculiar Indian kind ; 
now some solemn ceremony to propitiate the 
spirits who were supposed to rule the weather, 
the crops, the hunting, and all the interests of 
barbarian life. 

At all times there was endless visiting from 
lodge to lodge. Hospitality was universal. Let. 
a visitor come in, and it would have been the 
height of rudeness not to set food before him. 
To refuse it would have been equally an offence 
against good manners. Only an Indian stomach 
was equal to the constant round of eating. White 
men often found themselves seriously embarrassed 
between their desire not to offend their hosts 
and their Own repugnance to viands which could 
not tempt a civilized man who was not famished. 

It seems strange to think of the women as 
both the drudges and the rulers of the lodge. 
Yet such they were. This fact arose from the 
circumstance already mentioned, that descent was 
counted, not through the fathers, but through 
the mothers. The home and the children were 

40 



THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 

the wife's, not the husband's. There she lived, 
surrounded by her female relatives, whereas he 
had come from another clan. If he proved lazy 
or incompetent to do his full share of provid- 
ing, let the women unite against him, and out 
he must go, while the wife remained. 

The community idea, which we have seen to 
be the key to Indian social life, showed itself in 
universal helpfulness. Ferocious and pitiless as 
these people were toward their enemies, the 
women even more ingeniously cruel than the 
men, nothing could exceed the cheerful spirit 
with which, in their own rough way, they bore 
one another's burdens. It filled the French 
missionaries with admiration, and they frequently 
tell us how, if a lodge was accidentally burned, 
the whole village turned out to help rebuild it ; 
or how, if children were left orphans, they were 
quickly adopted and provided for. It is equally 
a mistake to glorify the Indian as a hero and 
to deny him the rude virtues which he really 
possessed. 



41 



chapter IV 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF FRENCHMEN IN THE 
NORTH OF AMERICA 



Chapter IV 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF FRENCHMEN IN THE 
NORTH OF AMERICA 

The Difference between Spanish and French Methods. — What 
caused the Difference. — How it resulted. 

ASINGULAR and picturesque story is 
that of New France. In romantic in- 
terest it has no rival in North America, 
save that of Mexico. Frenchmen 
opened up the great Northwest; and for a 
long time France was the dominant power in 
the North, as Spain was in the South. When 
the French tongue was heard in wigwams in far 
western forests ; when French goods were ex- 
changed for furs at the head of Lake Superior 
and around Hudson Bay ; when French priests 
had a strong post as far to the West as Sault Ste. 
Marie, and carried their missionary journeyings 
still further, who could have foreseen the day 
when the flag of republican France would fly 
over only two rocky islets off the coast of New- 
foundland, and to her great rival, Spain, of all 

45 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

her vast possessions would remain not a single 
rood of land on the mainland of the world to 
which she had led the white race ? 

At the period with which we are occupied 
these two great Catholic powers seemed in a fair 
way to divide North America between them. 
Their methods were as different as the material 
objects which they sought. The Spaniard wanted 
Goldj and he roamed over vast regions in quest 
of it, conquering, enslaving, and exploiting the 
natives as the means of achieving his ends. The 
Frenchman craved Furs, and for these he traf- 
ficked with the Indians. The one depended on 
conquest, the other on trade. 

Now trade cannot exist without good-will. 
You may rob people at the point of the sword, 
but to have them come to you freely and ex- 
change with you, you must have gained their 
confidence. Further, there was a deep-lying 
cause for this difference of method. Wretched 
beings may be worked in gangs, under a slave- 
driver, in fields and mines. This was the Span- 
ish way. But hunting animals for their skins 
and trapping them for their furs is solitary work, 
done by lone men in the wilderness, and, above 
all, by men who are free to come and go. You 

46 



FRENCHMEN IN NORTH AMERICA 

cannot make a slave of the hunter who roams the 
forests, traps the brooks, and paddles the lakes 
and streams. His occupation keeps him a wild, 
free man. Whatever advantage is taken of him 
must be gained by winning his confidence. 

Thus the object of the Frenchman's pursuit 
rendered necessary a constantly friendly attitude 
toward the Indians. If he displeased them, 
they would cease to bring their furs. If he did 
not give enough of his goods in exchange, they 
would take a longer journey and deal with the 
Dutch at Albany or with the English at their 
outlying settlements. In short, the Spaniard had 
no rival and was in a position allowing him to 
be as brutal as he pleased. The Frenchman was 
simply in the situation of a shopkeeper who has 
no control over his customers, and if he does not 
retain their good-will, must see them deal at 
the other place across the street. 

There is no doubt that this difference of con- 
ditions made an enormous difference between the 
Spanish and the French attitude toward the 
Indians. The Spaniards were naturally inclined 
to be haughty and cruel toward inferior races, 
while the French generally showed themselves 
friendly and mingled freely with the natives in 

47 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

new regions. But the circumstance to which 
attention has here been called tended to exag- 
gerate the natural disposition of each. Absolute 
power made the Spaniard a cruel master : the 
lack of it drove the Frenchman to gain his ends 
by cunning and cajolery. 

The consequence was, that while the Spaniard 
was dreaded and shunned, and whole populations 
were wiped out by his merciless rule, the French- 
man was loved by the Indians. They turned 
gladly to him from the cold Englishman, who 
held himself always in the attitude of a superior 
being ; they made alliances with him and scalped 
his enemies, white or red, with devilish glee ; 
they hung about every French post, warmed 
themselves by the Frenchman's fire, ate his food, 
and patted their stomachs with delight ; and they 
swarmed by thousands to Quebec, bringing their 
peltries for trade, received gewgaws and tinsel 
decorations from the Governor, and swore eter- 
nal allegiance to his master, the Sun of the World, 
at Versailles. 

In a former volume, " Pioneer Spaniards in 
North America," we have followed the steps of 
Spain's dauntless leaders in the Western World. 
We have seen Balboa, Ponce, Cortes, Soto, 

48 



FRENCHMEN IN NORTH AMERICA 

Coronado, making their way by the bloody hand, 
slaying, plundering, and burning, and we have 
heard the shrieks of victims torn to pieces by 
savage dogs. 

In the present volume quite other methods 
will engage our attention. We shall accompany 
the shrewd pioneers of France, as they make their 
joyous entry into Indian villages, eat boiled dog 
with pretended relish, sit around the council-fire, 
smoke the Indian's pipe, and end by dancing the 
war-dance as furiously as the red men. 



49 



Chapter V 



JACQUES CARTIER, THE DISCOVERER OF 
CANADA 



chapter V 



JACQUES CARTIER, THE DISCOVERER OF 
CANADA 

Jacques Cartier enters the St. Lawrence. — He imagines that 
he has found a Sea-route to the Indies. — The Importance 
of such a Route. — His Exploration of the St. Lawrence. — 
A Bitter Winter. — Cartier's Treachery and its Punishment. 
— Roberval's Disastrous Expedition. 

HOW early the first Frenchmen visited 
America it is hard to say. It has 
been claimed, on somewhat doubtful 
evidence, that the Basques, that an- 
cient people inhabiting the Pyrenees and the 
shores of the Bay of Biscay, fished on the coast 
of Newfoundland before John Cabot saw it and 
received credit as the discoverer of this continent. 
So much, at any rate, is certain, that within a 
very few years after Cabot's voyage a consider- 
able fleet of French, Spanish, and Portuguese 
vessels was engaged in the Newfoundland fish- 
ery. Later the English took part in it. The 
French soon gained the lead in this industry 

53 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

and thus became the predominant power on the 
northern shores of America, just as the Spaniards 
were on the southern. The formal claim of 
France to the territory which she afterward 
called New France was based on the explora- 
tions of her adventurous voyagers. 

Jacques Cartier was a daring mariner, belong- 
ing to that bold Breton race whose fishermen had 
for many years frequented the Newfoundland 
Banks for codfish. In 1534 he sailed to push 
his exploration farther than had as yet been at- 
tempted. His inspiration was the old dream of 
all the early navigators, the hope of finding a 
highway to China. Needless to say, he did not 
find it, but he found something well worth the 
finding — Canada. 

Sailing through the Straits of Belle Isle, he 
saw an inland sea opening before him. Passing 
Anticosti Island, he landed on the shore of a fine 
bay. It was the Tnonth of July, and it chanced 
to be an oppressive day. " The country is hot- 
ter than the country of Spain," he wrote in his 
journal. Therefore he gave the bay its name, 
the Bay of Chaleur (heat). The beauty and 
fertility of the country, the abundance of ber- 
ries, and " the many goodly meadows, full of 

54 



JACQUES CARTIER 

grass, and lakes wherein great pleanty of salmons 
be," made a great impression on him. 

On the shore were more than three hundred 
men, women, and children. " These showed 
themselves very friendly," he says, "and in such 
wise were we assured one of another, that we 
very familiarly began to traffic for whatever they 
had, till they had nothing but their naked bodies, 
for they gave us all whatsoever they had." These 
Indians belonged undoubtedly to some branch of 
the Algonquin family occupying all this region. 

Cartier did not scruple to take advantage of 
their simplicity. At Gaspe he set up a cross 
with the royal arms, the fleur-de-lys, carved on 
it, and a legend meaning, " Long live the King 
of France ! " He meant this as a symbol of tak- 
ing possession of the country for his master. Yet, 
when the Indian chief asked him what this meant, 
he answered that it was only a landmark for ves- 
sels that might come that way. Then he lured 
some of the natives on board and succeeded in 
securing two young men to be taken to France. 
This villainy accomplished, he sailed for home in 
great glee, not doubting that the wide estuary 
whose mouth he had entered was the opening 
of the long-sought passage to Cathay. In France 

65 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

his report excited wild enthusiasm. The way to 
the Indies was open ! France had found and 
France would control it ! 

Natural enough was this joyful feeling. The 
only water-route to the East then in use was that 
around the Cape of Good Hope, and it belonged, 
according to the absurd grant of Pope Alexander 
the Sixth, to Portugal alone. Spain had opened 
another around the Horn, but kept the fact care- 
fully concealed. In short, the selfish policy of 
Spain and Portugal was to shut all other nations 
out of trading with the regions which they claimed 
as theirs ; and these tyrants of the southern seas 
were not slow in enforcing their claims. Spain, 
too, had ample means at her disposal. She was 
the mightiest power in the world, and her dominion 
on the ocean there was none to dispute. At that 
time Drake and Hawkins and those other great 
English seamen who broke her sea-power had not 
appeared. This condition of affairs compelled 
the northern nations, the English, French, and 
Dutch, to seek a route through high latitudes to 
the fabled wealth of the Indies. It led to those 
innumerable attempts to find a northeast or a 
northwest passage of which we have read else- 
where. (See, in " The World's Discoverers," ac- 

56 



JACQUES CARTIER 

counts of Froblsher, Davis, Barentz, and Hudson, 
and of Nordenskjold, their triumphant successor.) 

Now, Francis the First, the French monarch, 
a jealous rival of the Spanish sovereign, was 
determined to get a share of the New World. 
He had already, in 1524, sent out Verrazano to 
seek a passage to the East (See a sketch of this 
very interesting voyage in "The World's Dis- 
coverers"), and now he was eager to back Cartier 
with men and money. 

Accordingly, the next year we find the explorer 
back at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, this time 
with three vessels and with a number of gentle- 
men who had embarked in the enterprise, believ- 
ing that they were on their way to reap a splendid 
harvest in the Indies, like that of the Spanish 
cavaliers who sailed with the conquerors of 
Mexico and Peru. Entering, on St. Lawrence's 
day, the Gulf which he had discovered in the 
previous year, he named it the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence. The river emptying into it he called 
Hochelaga, from the Indian name of the adjacent 
country. Then, guided by the two young na- 
tives whom he had kidnapped the year before, 
whose home, though they had been seized near 
irs mouth, was high up the river, he sailed up the 

•57 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

wide stream, convinced that he was approaching 
China. 

In due time Stadacone was reached, near the 
site of Quebec, and Cartier visited the chief, 
Donnaconna, in his village. The two young 
Indians who acted as guides and interpreters had 
been filling the ears of their countrymen with 
marvelous tales of France. Especially, they had 
" made great brags," Cartier says, about his 
cannon ; and Donnaconna begged him to fire some 
of them. Cartier, quite willing to give the sav- 
ages a sense of his wonderful resources, ordered 
twelve guns fired in quick succession. At the 
roar of the canon, he says, " they were greatly 
astonished and amazed ; for they thought that 
Heaven had fallen upon them, and put themselves 
to flight, howling and crying and shrieking as if 
hell had broken loose." 

Leaving his two larger vessels safely anchored 
within the mouth of the St. Charles River, Car- 
tier set out with the smallest and two open boats, 
to ascend the St. Lawrence. At Hochelaga he 
found a great throng of Indians on the shore, 
wild with delight, dancing and singing. They 
loaded the strangers with gifts of fish and maize. 
At night the dark woods, far and near, were 

58 



JACQUES CARTIER 

illumined with the blaze of great fires around 
which the savages capered with joy. 

The next day Cartier and his party were con- 
ducted to the great Indian town. Passing 
through cornfields laden with ripening grain, 
they came to a high circular palisade consisting 
of three rows of tree-trunks, the outer and the 
inner inclining toward each other and supported 
by an upright row between them. Along the 
top were " places to run along and ladders to get 
up, all full of stones for the defence of it." In 
short, it was a very complete fortification, of the 
kind that the Hurons and the Iroquois always 
built. 

Passing through a narrow portal, the French- 
men saw for the first time a group of those large, 
oblong dwellings, each containing several families, 
with which later travelers became familiar in the 
Iroquois and the Huron countries. Arriving 
within the town, the visitors found themselves 
objects of curious interest to a great throng of 
women and children who crowded around the 
first Europeans they had ever beheld, with ex- 
pressions of wonder and delight. These bearded 
men seemed to them to have come down from 
the skies, children of the Sun. 

59 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Next, a great meeting was held. Then came 
a touching scene. An aged chief who was para- 
lyzed was brought and placed at Cartier's feet, and 
the latter understood that he was asked to heal 
him. He laid his hands on the palsied limbs. 
Then came a great procession of the sick, the 
lame, and the blind, " for it seemed unto them," 
says Cartier, " that God was descended and come 
down from Heaven to heal them." We cannot 
but recall how Cortes and his Spaniards were 
held by the superstitious Aztecs to have come 
from another world, and how Cabeza de Vaca 
was believed to exercise the power of God to heal 
the sick. (See "Pioneer Spaniards in North 
America." ) Cartier solemnly read a passage of 
the Scriptures, made the sign of the cross over 
the poor suppliants, and offered prayer. The 
throng of savages, without comprehending a 
word, listened in awe-struck silence. 

After distributing gifts, the Frenchmen, with a 
blast of trumpets, marched out and were led to 
the top of a neighboring mountain. Seeing the 
magnificent expanse of forest extending to the 
horizon, with the broad, blue river cleaving its 
way through, Cartier thought it a domain worthy 
of a prince and called the eminence Mont Royal, 

60 



JACQUES CARTIER 

Thus originated the name of the future city of 
Montreal, built almost a century later. 

By the time that he had returned to Stadacone 
the autumn was well advanced, and his comrades 
had made preparations against the coming of 
winter by building a fort of palisades on or near 
the site where Quebec now stands. 

Soon snow and ice shut in the company of 
Europeans, the first to winter in the northern 
part of this continent. A fearful experience it 
was. When the cold was at its worst, and the 
vessels moored in the St. Charles River were 
locked fast in ice and buried in snow-drifts, that 
dreadful scourge of early explorers, the scurvy, 
attacked the Frenchmen. Soon twenty-five had 
died, and of the living but three or four were in 
health. For fear that the Indians, if they learned 
of their wretched plight, might seize the oppor- 
tunity of destroying them outright, Cartier did 
not allow any of them to approach the fort. One 
day, however, chancing to meet one of them who 
had himself been ill with the scurvy, but now 
was quite well, he was told of a sovereign remedy, 
a decoction of the leaves of a certain tree, probably 
the spruce. The experiment was tried with 
success, and the sick Frenchmen recovered, 

6i 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

At last the dreary winter wore away, and Car- 
tier prepared to return home. He had found 
neither gold nor a passage to India, but he would 
not go empty-handed. Donnaconna and nine of 
his warriors were lured into the fort as his guests, 
overwhelmed by sturdy sailors, and carried on 
board the vessels. Then, having raised over the 
the scene of this cruel treachery the symbol of the 
Prince of Peace, he set sail for France. 

In 1 541 Cartier made another, and last, voyage 
to Canada. On reaching Stadacone he was be- 
sieged by savages eagerly inquiring for the chiefs 
whom he had carried away. He replied that 
Donnaconna was dead, but the others had married 
noble ladies and were living in great state in 
France. The Indians showed by their coldness 
that they knew this story to be false. Every 
one of the poor exiles had died. 

On account of the distrust of the natives, 
Cartier did not stop at Stadacone, but pursued 
his way up the river. While the bulk of his 
party made a clearing on the shore, built forts, 
and sowed turnip-seed, he went on and explored 
the rapids above Hochelaga, evidently still hop- 
ing to find a passage to India. Of course, he 
was disappointed. He returned to the place 

.62 



JACQUES CARTIER 

where he had left his party and there spent a 
gloomy winter, destitute of supplies and shunned 
by the natives. 

All that he had to show for his voyage was a 
<^uantity of some shining mineral and of quartz 
crystals, mistaken for gold and diamonds. The 
treachery of the second voyage made the third a 
failure. 

Thus ended in disappointment and gloom the 
career of France's great pioneer, whose discov- 
eries were the foundation of her claims in North 
America, and who first described the natives of 
that vast territory which she called New France. 

Another intending settler of those days was the 
Sieur de Roberval. Undismayed by Cartier's ill- 
success, he sailed up the St. Lawrence and cast 
anchor before Cap Rouge, the place which Car- 
tier had fortified and abandoned. Soon the party 
were housed in a great structure which contained 
accommodations for all under one roof, so that it 
was planned on the lines of a true colony, for it 
included women and children. But few have ever 
had a more miserable experience. By some 
strange lack of foresight, there was a very scant 
supply of food, and with the winter came famine. 
Disease inevitably followed, so that before spring 

.63 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

one-third of the colony had died. We may think 
that Nature was hard, but she was mild and gentle, 
in comparison with Roberval. He kept one man 
in irons for a trifling offence. Another he shot 
for a petty theft. To quarreling men and women 
he gave a taste of the whipping-post. It has even 
been said that he hanged six soldiers in one day. 
Just what was the fate of this wretched little 
band has not been recorded. We only know 
that it did not survive long. With its failure 
closes the first chapter of the story of French ac- 
tivity on American soil. Fifty years had passed 
since Columbus had made his great discovery, 
and as yet no foothold had been gained by France 
anywhere, nor indeed by any European power on 
the Atlantic seaboard of the continent. 



64 



chapter VI 



JEAN RIBAUT 

THE FRENCH AT PORT ROYAL, IN SOUTH 
CAROLINA 



Chapter VI 

JEAN RIBAUT 

THE FRENCH AT PORT ROYAL, IN SOUTH 
CAROLINA 

The Expedition of Captain Jean Ribaut. — Landing on the St. 
John's River. — Friendly Natives. — The "Seven Cities of 
Cibola " again ! — The Coast of Georgia. — Port Royal 
reached and named. — A Fort built and a Garrison left. 
— Discontent and Return to France. 

NO doubt the severe winters of Can- 
ada determined Admiral Coligny, the 
leader of the Huguenots, or French 
Protestants, to plant the settlement 
which he designed as a haven of refuge from 
persecution, in the southern part of the New 
World. 

Accordingly, on the first day of May, 1562, 
two little vessels under the command of Captain 
Jean Ribaut found themselves off the mouth of 
a great river which, because of the date, they 
called the River of May, now known as the 
St. John's. 

67 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

When they landed, it seemed to the sea-worn 
Frenchmen as if they had set foot in an enchanted 
world. Stalwart natives, whom Laudonniere, one 
of the officers, describes as " mighty and as well 
shapen and proportioned of body as any people 
in the world," greeted them hospitably.^ Over- 
head was the luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation, 
giant oaks festooned with gray moss trailing 
to the ground and towering magnolias opening 
their great white, fragrant cups. No wonder 
they thought this newly discovered land the 
" fairest, fruitfullest, and pleasantest of all the 
world." One of the Indians wore around his 
neck a pearl " as great as an acorne at the least " 
and gladly exchanged it for a bauble. This set 
the explorers to inquiring for gold and gems, 

^ These people were of the Timucua tribe, one that has since 
become entirely extinct, and that was succeeded in the occupation 
of Florida by the warlike Seminoles, an off-shoot of the Creeks. 
They belonged to the Muskoki group, which included some of 
the most advanced tribes on our continent. These Southern 
Indians had progressed further in the arts of life than the Algon- 
quins and the Iroquois, and were distinguished from these by a 
milder disposition. Gentle and kind toward strangers, they were 
capable of great bravery when defending their homes or punishing 
treachery, as the Spanish invaders had already learned to their cost. 
They dwelt in permanent villages, raised abundant crops of corn, 
pumpkins, and other vegetables, and, amid forests full of game 
and rivers teeming with fish, lived in ease and plenty. 

68 



JEAN RIBAUT 

and they soon gathered, as they imagined, from 
the Indians' signs that the " Seven Cities of 
Cibola"^ — again the myth that had led Coro- 
nado and his Spaniards to bitter disappointment ! 
— were distant only twenty days' journey. Of 
course, the natives had never heard of Cibola and 
did not mean anything of the kind. The ex- 
plorers soon embarked and sailed northward, 
exploring the coast of Georgia and giving to the 
rivers or inlets the names of rivers of France, 
such as the Loire and the Gironde. 

On May 27 they entered a wide and deep 
harbor, spacious enough, it seemed to them, 
" to hold the argosies of the world." A royal 
haven it seemed, Port Royal they named it, and 
Port Royal it is called to this day. They sailed 
up this noble estuary and entered Broad River. 
When they landed the frightened Indians fled. 
Good reason they had to dread the sight of 
white men, for this was the country of Chicora 
(South Carolina), the scene of one of those acts 
of brutal treachery of which the Spaniards, of 
European nations, were the most frequently all 
guilty. 

Forty-two years before, Lucas Vasquez de 

1 See <* Pioneer Spaniards in North America." 

69 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Ayllon, a high official of San Domingo, had 
visited this coast with two vessels. The simple 
and kindly" natives lavished hospitality on the 
strangers. In return, the Spaniards invited them 
on board. Full of wondering curiosity, the 
Indians without suspicion explored every part 
of the vessels. When the holds were full of 
sight-seers, their hosts suddenly closed the 
hatches and sailed away with two ship-loads of 
wretched captives doomed to toil as slaves in 
the mines of San Domingo. But Ayllon's 
treachery was well punished. One of his ves- 
sels was lost, and on board the other the captives 
refused food and mostly died before the end of 
the voyage. On his revisiting the coast, six years 
later, nearly his entire following was massacred 
by the natives, who lured them to a feast, then 
fell upon them in the dead of night. Treachery 
for treachery ! 

The Frenchmen, however, won the confidence 
of the Indians with gifts of knives, beads, and 
looking-glasses, coaxed two on board the ships, 
and loaded them with presents, in the hope of 
reconciling them to going to France. But they 
moaned incessantly and finally fled. 

These Europeans, however, had not done any- 
70 



JEAN RIBAUT 

thing to alarm the natives, and soon the latter 
were on easy terms with them. Therefore, when 
it was decided to leave a number of men to hold 
this beautiful country for the King, Ribaut felt 
sure of the Indians' friendly disposition. He 
detailed thirty men, under the command of Albert 
de Pierria, as the garrison of a fort which he 
armed with guns from the ship. 

It would delight us to know the exact site of 
this earliest lodgment of Europeans on the Atlan- 
tic coast north of Mexico. All that can be said 
with certainty is that it was not many miles from 
the picturesque site of Beaufort. 

Having executed his commission by finding a 
spot suitable for a colony, Ribaut sailed away, 
leaving the little band to hold the place until he 
should return with a party of colonists. Those 
whom he left had nothing to do but to roam the 
country in search of gold, haunted, as they were, 
by that dream which was fatal to so many of the 
early ventures in America. They did not find 
any, but they visited the villages of several chiefs 
and were always hospitably entertained. When 
supplies in the neighborhood ran low, they made 
a journey by boat through inland water-ways to 
two chiefs on the Savannah River, who furnished 

71 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

them generously with corn and beans ; and when 
their storehouse burned down, with the provi- 
sions which they had just received, they went 
again to the same generous friends, received a 
second supply, and were bidden to come back 
without hesitation, if they needed more. There 
seemed to be no limit to the good-will of the 
kindly natives.^ 

Their monotonous existence soon began to 
pall on the Frenchmen, eager for conquest and 
gold. They had only a few pearls, given them 
by the Indians. Of these the natives undoubt- 
edly possessed a considerable quantity, but not 
baskets heaped with them, as the Spaniards said. 

1 These were Edistoes and Kiowas. The fierce Yemassees came 
into the country later. The kindness of the Southern Indians, 
when not provoked by wanton outrage, is strikingly illustrated in 
the letter of the famous navigator, Giovanni Verrazzano (See 
" The World's Discoverers "), who visited the Atlantic seaboard 
nearly about the same time as the kidnapper Ayllon. Once, as 
he was coasting along near the site of Wilmington, N. C, on 
account of the high surf a boat could not land, but a bold young 
sailor swam to the shore and tossed a gift of trinkets to some In- 
dians gathered on the beach. A moment later the sea threw him 
helpless and bruised at their feet. In an instant he was seized by 
the arms and legs and, crying lustily for help, was borne off to a 
great fire — to be roasted on the spot, his shipmates did not 
doubt. On the contrary, the natives warmed and rubbed him, 
then took him down to the shore and watched him swim back to 
his friends. 

72 



JEAN RIBAUT 

Roaming the woods or paddling up the creeks, 
the Frenchmen encountered always the same 
rude fare, hominy, beans, and fish. Before them 
was always the same glassy river, shimmering in 
the fierce midsummer heat; around them the 
same silent pine forests. 

The rough soldiers and sailors, accustomed to 
spend their leisure in taverns, found the dull 
routine of existence in Chicora insupportable. 
Besides, their commander irritated them by un- 
due severity. The crisis came when he hanged 
a man with his own hands for a slight offence. 
The men rose in a body, murdered him, and 
chose Nicholas Barre to succeed him. 

Shortly afterward they formed a desperate re- 
solve : they would build a ship and sail home. 
Nothing could have seemed wilder. Not one of 
them had any experience of ship-building. But 
they went to work with a will. They had a 
forge, tools, and some Iron. Soon the forest 
rang with the sound of the axe and with the 
crash of falling trees. They laid the keel and 
pushed the work with amazing energy and inge- 
nuity, caulked the seams with long moss gathered 
from the neighboring trees and smeared the bot- 
toms and sides with pitch from the pines. The 

73 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Indians showed them how to make a kind of 
cordage, and their shirts and bedding were sewn 
together into sails. At last their crazy little craft 
was afloat, undoubtedly the first vessel built on 
the Atlantic seaboard of America. 

They laid in such stores as they could secure 
by bartering their goods to the Indians, deserted 
their post, and sailed away from a land where 
they could have found an easy and comfortable 
living, if they had put into the task half the 
thought and labor which they exerted to escape 
from it. 

Few voyages, even in the thrilling annals of 
exploration, have ever been so full of hardship 
and suffering as this mad one. Alternate calms 
and storms baffled, famine and thirst assailed the 
unfortunate crew. Some died outright ; others 
went crazy with thirst, leaped overboard, and 
drank their fill once and forever. The wretched 
survivors drew lots, killed the man whom fortune 
designated, and satisfied their cravings with his 
flesh and blood. At last, as they were drifting 
helpless, with land in sight, an English vessel 
bore down on them, took them all on board, 
landed the feeblest, and carried the rest as prison- 
ers to Queen Elizabeth. 

74. 



Chapter VII 



RENE DE LAUDONNTfiRE 

PLANTING A COLONY ON THE ST. 
JOHN'S RIVER 



Chapter VII 



RENfi DE LAUDONNlfeRE 

PLANTING A COLONY ON THE ST. 

JOHN'S RIVER 

Ren6 de Laudonnifere's Expedition to the St. John's. — Absurd 
Illusions of the Frenchmen. — Their Bad Faith to the 
Indians, and its Fatal Results, — The Thirst for Gold, and 
how it was rewarded. — Buccaneering. — A Storm-cloud 
gathers in Spain. — Misery in the Fort on the St. John's. — 
Relieved by Sir John Hawkins. — Arrival of Ribaut with 
Men and Supplies. — Don Pedro Menendez captures Fort 
Caroline and massacres the Garrison and Shipwrecked 
Crews. — Dominique de Gourgues takes Vengeance. 

THE failure at Port Royal did not dis- 
courage Admiral Coligny from sending 
out another expedition, in the spring 
of 1564, under the command of Rene 
de Laudonniere, who had been with Ribaut in 
1562. It reached the mouth of the St. John's 
on the 25th of June and was joyfully greeted by 
the kindly Indians. 

The lieutenant, Ottigny, strolling off into the 
woods with a few men, met some Indians and 
was conducted to their village. There, he 

71 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

gravely tells us, he met a venerable chief who told 
him that he was two hundred and fifty years old. 
But, after all, he might probably expect to live a 
hundred years more, for he introduced another 
patriarch as his father. This shrunken anatomy, 
blind, almost speechless, and more like " a dead 
carkeis than a living body," he said, was likely to 
last thirty or forty years longer. 

Probably the Frenchman had heard of the 
fabled fountain of Bimini, which lured Ponce de 
Leon to his ruin, and the river Jordan, which 
was said to be somewhere in Florida and to pos- 
sess the same virtue, and he fancied that the 
gourd of cool water which had just been given 
him might come from such a spring.^ 

1 In " Pioneer Spaniards in North America," p. 79, it has been 
mentioned that when Ponce de Leon fancied that he heard among 
the Indians of Porto Rico a story of a fountain having the property 
of giving immortality, this was because he had in his mind a legend 
that had long been current in Europe. Sir John Maundeville went 
so far as to say that he had visited these famous waters in Asia and 
had bathed in them. The legend was, however, much older than 
Maundeviile's time. In the "Romance of Alexander the Great," 
which was very popular hundreds of years ago, it is related that 
Alexander's cook, on one of his marches, took a salt fish to a 
spring to wash it before cooking it. No sooner was the fish put 
into the water than it swam away. The cook secured a bottle of 
the magic water, but concealed his knowledge. Later he divulged 
his secret to Alexander's daughter, who thereupon married him. 

78 



RENE DE LAUD0NNI£RE 

This example shows how credulous these 
Frenchmen were, moving in a world of fancy, the 
glamour of romantic dreams about the New 
World still fresh upon them, visions of unmeas- 
ured treasures of silver and gold and gems float- 
ing through their brains. 

It would make a tedious tale to relate all their 
follies, surrounded as they were by a bountiful 
nature and a kindly people, and yet soon re- 
duced to abject want. In the party there were 
brawling soldiers and piratical sailors, with only 
a few quiet, decent artisans and shop-keepers, 
but with a swarm of reckless young nobles, who 
had nothing to recommend them but a long 
name, and who expected to prove themselves 
Pizarros in fighting and treasure-getting. Un- 
fortunately, the kind of man who is the back- 
bone of a colony, " the man with the hoe," was 
not there. 

This motley crew soon finished a fort, which 
stood on the river, a little above what is now 
called St. John's Bluff and was named Fort 

Alexander, when he learned the facts, was furious. He changed 
his daughter into a sea-nymph and his cook into a sea-monster. 
Being immortal, undoubtedly they are still disporting themselves in 
the Indian Ocean. For this story the writer is indebted to Professor 
George F, Moore, D.D., of the Harvard Divinity School. 

79 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Caroline, in honor of Charles the Ninth. Then 
they began to look around, keen for gold and 
adventure. 

The Indians had shown themselves hostile when 
they saw the Frenchmen building a fort, which 
was evidence that they had come to stay. Lau- 
donniere quieted the chief Satouriona by promis- 
ing to aid him against his enemies, a tribe up the 
river, called the Thimagoas. Next, misled by a 
story of great riches up the river, he actually 
made an alliance with Outina, the chief of the 
Thimagoas. Thus the French were engaged at 
the same time to help both sides. But the craze 
for gold was now at fever-heat, and they had 
little notion of keeping faith with mere savages. 
Outina promised Vasseur, Laudonniere's lieuten- 
ant, that if he would join him against Potanou, 
the chief of a third tribe, each of his vassals 
would reward the French with a heap of gold and 
silver two feet high. So, at least, Vasseur pro- 
fessed to understand him. 

The upshot of the matter was that Satouriona 
was incensed against the French for breaking 
faith with him. And to make the situation worse, 
when he went, unaided, and attacked his enemies 
and brought back prisoners, the French com- 

80 



RENE DE LAUD0NNI£RE 

mander, to curry favor with Outina, compelled 
Satouriona to give up some of his captives and 
sent them home to their chief. 

All this was laying up trouble for the future. 
Not a sod had the Frenchmen turned in the way 
of tilling the soil. The river flowing at their feet 
teemed with fish. The woods about them were 
alive with game. But they could neither fish nor 
hunt. Starving in a land of plenty, ere long 
they would be dependent for food on these 
people who had met them so kindly, and whom 
they had deliberately cheated and outraged. 

Next we find Vasseur sailing up the river and 
sending some of ^his men with Outina to attack 
Potanou, whose village lay off to the northwest. 
Several days the war-party marched through a 
pine-barren region. When it reached its destina- 
tion the Frenchmen saw, instead of a splendid 
city of the " kings of the Appalachian moun- 
tains," rich in gold, just such an Indian town, 
surrounded by rough fields of corn and pump- 
kins, as the misguided Spaniards under Soto had 
often come upon. The poor barbarians defended 
their homes bravely. But the Frenchmen's guns 
routed them. Sack and slaughter followed, with 
the burning of the town. Then the victors 
6 8i 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

marched away, with such glory as they had got, 
but of course without a grain of gold. 

At Fort Caroline a spirit of suUenness was 
growing. Disappointment had followed all their 
reckless, wicked attempts to get treasure. The 
Indians of the neighborhood, grown unfriendly, 
had ceased to bring in food for barter. The 
garrison was put on half-rations. Men who had 
come to Florida expecting to find themselves in 
a land of plenty and to reap a golden harvest, 
would scarcely content themselves with the mo- 
notonous routine of life in a little fort by a hot 
river, with nothing to do and almost nothing to 
eat. It was easy to throw all the blame on Lau- 
donniere. 

" Why does he not lead us out to explore the 
country and find its treasures? He is keeping 
us from making our fortunes," the gentlemen 
adventurers cried. 

Here again we are reminded of the Spaniards 
under Narvaez and Soto, who struggled through 
the swamps and interminable pine-barrens of 
Florida, cheered on by the delusive assurance that 
when they came to the country of Appalachee 
they would find gold in abundance. (See 
" Pioneer Spaniards in North America.") 

82 




2 

o 

< 

u 

O 



RENE DE LAUDONNIERE 

Another class of malcontents took matters into 
their own hands. They were ex-pirates, and 
they determined to fly the "jolly Roger" once 
more. They stole two pinnaces, slipped away 
to sea, and were soon cruising among the West 
Indies. Hunger drove them into Havana. 
They gave themselves up and made their peace 
with the Spanish authorities by telling of their 
countrymen at Fort Caroline. 

Now, Spain claimed the whole of North 
America, under the Pope's grant. Moreover, 
Philip of Spain had but lately commissioned as 
Governor of Florida one Pedro Menendez de 
Aviles, a ruthless bigot who would crush a 
Protestant with as much satisfaction as a ven- 
omous serpent. Imagine the effect upon his 
gloomy mind of the news that reached him in 
Spain, by the way of Havana, of a band of 
Frenchmen, and, worst of all, heretics settled in 
Florida, his Florida ! 

Meanwhile the men at Fort Caroline, all un- 
conscious of the black storm brewing in Spain, 
continued their grumbling. They had not heard 
of the fate of the party who had sailed away, and 
now nearly all were bent on buccaneering. One 
day a number of them mutinied, overpowered the 

83 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

guard, seized Laudonniere, put him in irons, 
carried him on board a vessel lying in the river, 
and compelled him, under threat of death, to 
sign a commission for them to cruise along the 
Spanish Main. Shortly afterward they sailed 
away in two small vessels that had been built at 
Fort Caroline. 

After their departure, the orderly element that 
remained behind restored Laudonniere to his 
command, and things went on smoothly for three 
or four months. Then, one day, a Spanish brig- 
antine was seen hovering off the mouth of the 
river. It was ascertained that she was manned 
by the mutineers, now anxious to return to the 
fort. Laudonniere sent down a trusty officer in 
a small vessel that he had built, with thirty sol- 
diers hidden in the hold. The buccaneers let her 
come alongside without suspicion and began to 
parley. Suddenly the soldiers came on deck, 
boarded, and overpowered them, before they could 
seize their arms. In fact, they were mostly drunk. 
After a short career of successful piracy, they 
had suddenly found themselves attacked by three 
armed vessels. The most were killed or taken, 
but twenty-six escaped. The pilot, who had been 
carried away against his will, cunningly steered 

84 



RENE DE LAUDONNIERE 

the brigantine to the Florida coast ; and, having 
no provisions, they were compelled to seek succor 
from their old comrades. Still they had wine in 
abundance, and so they appeared off the mouth 
of the river drunk, and, as we have seen, were 
easily taken. A court-martial condemned the 
ringleader and three others to be shot, which was 
duly done. The rest were pardoned. 

In the meantime the men in the fort had been 
inquiring diligently in various directions. There 
was still much talk of mysterious kingdoms, rich 
in gold. Once more they were duped into fight- 
ing his battles by the wily Outina, who promised 
to lead them to the mines of Appalachee. They 
defeated his enemies, and there was abundant 
slaughter, with plenty of scalps for Outina's braves, 
but, of course, no gold. 

The expected supplies from France did not 
come. The second summer was upon them, with 
its exhausting heat. The direst want pinched 
them. Ragged, squalid, and emaciated, they 
dragged themselves about the fort, digging roots 
or gathering any plant that might stay the gnaw- 
ings of hunger. They had made enemies of their 
neighbors, Satouriona and his people; and Outina, 
for whom they had done so much, sent them only 

85 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

a meagre supply of corn, with a demand for more 
help in fighting his enemies. They accepted the 
offer and were again cheated by the cunning 
savage. 

Laudonniere draws a pathetic picture of their 
misery. In the quaint old English translation of 
Richard Hakluyt it reads thus : " The effects of 
this hideous famine appeared incontinently among 
us, for our bones eftsoones beganne to cleave so 
neere unto the skinne, that the most part of the 
souldiers had their skinnes pierced thorow with 
them in many partes of their bodies." 

The thoughts of the famished men in Fort 
Caroline turned homeward with eager longing. 
They had still remaining one vessel and the 
Spanish brigantine brought by the mutineers. 
But they must have another. They began with 
furious haste to build one, everybody lending a 
hand. Then came a disastrous check. When 
things were well under way, the two carpenters, 
roaming away from the fort in search of food, 
were helping themselves to some ears of green 
corn in a field, when Indians fell upon them and 
killed them. 

In this desperate pass Laudonniere took a high- 
handed step. He sent a party up the river, seized 

86 



RENE DE LAUDONNIERE 

Outina, and brought him a prisoner to the fort. 
This had the desired eiFect. His people pleaded 
for his release. The Frenchmen agreeed to give 
him up for a large supply of corn and sent a well- 
armed party to his village, with the captive chief. 
The Indians brought in the corn, and the French- 
men released Outina, according to agreement. 
But when the former started from the village, 
each with a bag of corn on his shoulder, to march 
to their boats, which were at a landing two or 
three miles away, they were savagely attacked 
from both sides of the road. They were com- 
pelled to drop the corn and fight for their lives. 
Wherever there was opportunity for an ambus- 
cade, arrows showered upon them from the woods. 
They kept up the running fight bravely, returning 
a steady fire, but probably made little impression 
on their hidden foes swarming under cover. By 
the time they reached the boats they had two 
men killed and twenty-two wounded, and but 
two bags of corn. 

It is evident that the social life of these Indians 
was organized on the community-system, just as 
we have seen it to be among the Iroquois, of the 
North. They could supply the Frenchmen with 
corn in considerable quantities, taking it out of a 

87 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

stock kept for the whole community. Unlike 
the Iroquois, however, they lived by families, in 
individual houses. 

The distress at Fort Caroline was now extreme, 
owing to famine within and war without. In this 
dark hour, one day, four sails appeared, steering 
toward the mouth of the river. Was this the 
long-expected relief from France ? Or were these 
Spanish vessels ? Presently " the meteor flag of 
England " floated out on the breeze, and soon a 
boat brought a friendly message from the com- 
mander, the famous Sir John Hawkins. Being a 
strenuous Puritan, he was a warm sympathizer with 
the Protestants of France. Returning from sell- 
ing a cargo of Guinea negroes to the Spaniards of 
Hispaniola — not at all a discreditable transaction 
in those days — he had run short of water and 
had put into the River of May, to obtain a 
supply. 

Touched by the pitiful condition of the French- 
men, he opened his ship-stores, gave them wine 
and biscuit, and sold them other supplies very 
cheaply, taking cannon in payment. Then, smil- 
ing grimly at the two pitiful little craft in which 
they purposed sailing for France, he oflfered them 
all a free passage home. Laudonniere would not 

88 



REN]^ DE LAUDONNIERE 

accept a proposal so humiliating, but was very 
glad to buy a small vessel from Hawkins on 
credit. 

Just when all was in readiness to sail for home 
came news of an approaching squadron. It was 
an anxious hour. Were these friends or foes ? 
If foes, the garrison was lost, for the fort was de- 
fenceless. Then the river was seen full of armed 
barges coming up. Imagine the wild joy of the 
garrison, when the sentry's challenge was answered 
in French ! It was Ribaut. He had come at 
last, with seven ships, bringing not only soldiers 
and artisans, but whole families of settlers. 

One might imagine that Fort Caroline's dark 
days had passed. But it was not so. Ribaut 
had been there just a week when his vessels, ly- 
ing outside the bar, were attacked, about dusk, by 
a huge Spanish galleon. The officers were on 
shore, and the crews cut the cables and put to 
sea, followed by the Spaniard firing, but not able 
to overhaul them. Ribaut, on shore, heard the 
guns and knew what they meant. The Spaniards 
had come ! Before he left France he had been 
secretly notified of their intentions. 

The next morning Don Pedro Menendez in his 
great galleon ran back to the mouth of the St. 

89 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

John's. But seeing the Frenchmen drawn up 
under arms on the beach and Ribaut's smaller 
vessels inside the bar, all ready for battle, he 
turned away and sailed southward to an inlet 
which he called San Augustin. There he found 
three ships of his unloading troops, guns, and 
stores. He landed, took formal possession of his 
vast domain — for the Florida of which he had 
been appointed Governor was understood by the 
Spaniards to extend from Mexico to the North 
Pole — and began to fortify the place. Thus, in 
September, 1565, was founded St. Augustine, the 
oldest town of the United States. 

One of the French captains, relying on the 
speed of his ship, had followed Menendez down 
the coast. He saw what was going on at St. 
Augustine and hastened back to report to Ribaut 
that the Spaniards were there in force and were 
throwing up fortifications. A brilliant idea came 
to the French commander. His dispersed ships 
had returned to their anchorage. Why not take 
them, with all his men and all of Laudonniere's 
that were fit for service, sail at once, and strike 
the Spaniards before they could complete their 
defences, instead of waiting for them to collect 
their full force and come and attack him, cooped 

90 



RENE DE LAUDONNIERE 

up on the St. John's ? Such bold moves make the 
fame of commanders when they succeed, and when 
they fail are called criminal folly. 

Unhappily, Ribaut neglected to consider the 
weather. It was the middle of September, a sea- 
son subject to terrific gales. Making all speed, 
he sailed away with every available man, leaving 
Laudonniere, sick himself, to hold dismantled 
Fort Caroline with disabled soldiers, cooks and 
servants, women and children. 

The French ships arrived safely off St. Augus- 
tine, just before the dawn, and narrowly missed 
taking Menendez himself, who was on board a 
solitary Spanish vessel which lay outside the bar. 
Just in the nick of time she escaped within the 
harbor. 

Before entering, the Frenchmen prudently rec- 
onnoitred the strange port. Meanwhile the breeze 
freshened into a gale, and the gale rose to a hurri- 
cane. The Frenchmen could no longer think of 
attacking, but only of saving themselves from im- 
mediate wreck. Down the coast they worked their 
way in a driving mist, struggling frantically to get 
out to sea, in the teeth of the hurricane remorse- 
lessly pushing them toward the deadly reefs. 

While his enemies were thus fighting for their 

91 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

lives, Menendez executed a counter-stroke to that 
of the French captain. Through the raging gale, 
while every living thing cowered before driving 
sheets of rain, this man of blood and iron marched 
away with five hundred picked men. A French 
deserter from Fort Caroline and an Indian acted 
as guides, and twenty axemen cleared the way 
through the dense under-growth. 

What a march ! Three days they tramped 
through a low, flooded country, hacking their 
way through tangled thickets, wading waist-deep 
through mud and water, for food and drink hav- 
ing only wet biscuit and rain-water, with a sup of 
wine ; for lodging only the oozy ground, with 
not so much as a rag of canvas over their heads 
to shelter them from the torrents of rain. 

When they reached Fort Caroline their ammu- 
nition was wet and their guns useless. They 
were half-famished and drenched to the skin. 
Still they were willing to follow their leader in a 
rush on the fort, relying on cold steel. 

The night of September 19th the inmates of 
Fort Caroline listened to the dismal moaning and 
creaking of the tall pines, the roar of the blast, 
and the fitful torrents of rain beating on the 
cabin-roofs. 

92 



RENE DE LAUDONNlfeRE 

In the gray dawn of the 20th a trumpeter who 
chanced to be astir, saw a swarm of men rushing 
toward the ramparts. He sounded the alarm ; 
but it was too late. With Spain's battle-cry, 
" Santiago ! Santiago ! " (St. James, her patron 
saint) the assailants swept over the ramparts and 
poured through a breach. 

They made quick work. The shriek of a 
helpless mother or the scream of a frightened 
infant was quickly hushed in death. When, 
however, the first fury of butchery had spent it- 
self, Menendez ordered that such persons should 
be spared, and fifty were actually saved alive. 
Every male above the age of fifteen was, from 
first to last, killed on the spot. 

Laudonniere had leaped from his sick-bed and, 
in his night-shirt, rallied a few men for resistance. 
But they were quickly killed or dispersed, and 
he escaped to the woods, where a few half-naked 
fugitives were gathered. Some of these deter- 
mined to go back and appeal to the humanity 
of the Spaniards. The mercy of wolves to 
lambs ! Seeing these poor wretches butchered, 
the others felt that their only hope was in making 
their way to the mouth of the river, where lay 
two or three light craft which Ribaut had left, 

93 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Wading through mire and water, their naked 
limbs cut by the sedge and their feet by roots, 
they met two or three small boats sent to look 
out for fugitives, and were taken aboard half 
dead. 

After two or three days of vain waiting for the 
reappearance of the armed ships, the little flotilla 
sailed for France, carrying Laudonniere and the 
other fugitives, some of whom died on the voyage 
from wounds and exposure. 

The Spaniards had Fort Caroline, with one 
hundred and forty-two dead heretics heaped about 
it and a splendid booty in armor, clothing, and 
provisions — all the supplies lately brought by 
Ribaut from France. Everybody has read how 
Menendez hanged his few prisoners on trees, 
with the legend over them, " I do this not as to 
Frenchmen, but to Lutherans." 

Meanwhile Ribaut and his ships had been 
blown down the coast, vainly struggling to keep 
away from the reefs, and were finally wrecked, 
one after another, at various distances to the 
south of St. Augustine. 

Let us pass quickly over the remainder of this 
sickening story. One day, after Menendez had re- 
turned to St. Augustine, Indians came in, breath- 

94 



RENE DE LAUDONNIERE 

less, with tidings that the crew of a wrecked vessel, 
struggling northward, had reached an arm of the 
sea (Matanzas Inlet), which they had no means 
of crossing. Immediately Menendez started out 
with about sixty men in boats and met them. 

The starving Frenchmen, deceived by his ap- 
parent humanity in setting breakfast before them, 
surrendered, and, having been ferried over the 
inlet in small batches, were led back into the 
sand-hills and butchered. 

About two weeks later word was brought to 
Menendez of a second and larger party of French- 
men who had reached the same fatal spot. Ribaut 
himself was among them. Not knowing of the 
horrible fate of his countrymen, he tried to make 
terms with the Spaniards. While he was parley- 
ing with Menendez, two hundred of his followers 
marched away, declaring that they would rather 
take chances with the Indians than with these 
white men whom they distrusted. 

Ribaut, having surrendered with the remaining 
hundred and fifty, was led away behind the sand- 
hills and his hands were tied. Then he knew that 
he had been duped, and calmly faced his doom. 
" We are of earth," he said, " and to earth must 
return ! Twenty years more or less matter little." 

95 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

As before, the deluded Frenchmen were 
brought over in tens, led away, tied, and, at a 
given signal, butchered. 

Some twenty days later, Menendez received 
tidings of a third band of Frenchmen, far to the 
southward, near Cape Canaveral. This was the 
party that had refused to surrender with Ribaut. 
When he reached the place, he saw that they had 
reared a kind of stockade and were trying to build 
a vessel out of the timbers of their wrecked ship. 
He sent a messenger to summon them to surren- 
der, pledging his honor for their safety. Part 
preferred to take the chance of being eaten by 
Indians, they said, and they actually fled to the 
native villages. The rest took Menendez at his 
word and surrendered, and they had no reason to 
regret it. He took them to St. Augustine and 
treated them well. Some of them rewarded the 
pious efibrts of the priests by turning Catholics. 
The rest were no doubt sent to the galleys. 

Everybody is familiar with the story of the 
vengeance taken by Dominique de Gourgues, a 
Gascon gentleman. Seeing the French court too 
supine to insist upon redress, he sold his estate, 
with the proceeds equipped and manned three 
small vessels, sailed to the coast of Florida and, 

96 



RENE DE LAUDONNIERE 

with the assistance of several hundred Indians, 
who hated the cruel Spaniards, captured Fort 
Caroline, slaughtered the garrison, hanged the 
prisoners, and put up over the scene of two 
butcheries the legend, " Not as to Spaniards, 
but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers." 

Thus closed the last bloody act in the tragedy 
of French colonization in Carolina and Florida. 
A long period — one hundred and thirty-four 
years — was to pass before the French flag would 
again fly within the territory now embraced in 
the Southern States. 



97 



Chapter VIII 

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN IN NOVA SCOTIA 



Chapter VIII 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN IN NOVA SCOTIA 

Hbw the Cod-fishery led to the Fur-trade. — Disastrous Fail- 
ure of the First Trading-posts. — Champlain's First Visit 
to the New World. — His Second, and the Determination to 
which it led. — The Bitter "Winter at St. Croix. — Cham- 
plain's First Voyage down the New England Coast. — Re- 
moval to Port Royal. — Abandonment of Port Royal. 

THE disasters in Florida did not abate 
the activity of Frenchmen on the far 
northern coast of America. 

The earliest attraction was the cod- 
fishery. Then, as the fishing-folk grew familiar 
with Newfoundland and the continental shores, 
their attention was drawn to the skins worn by 
the natives. What prices they would bring in 
France ! Here was a field that would make 
richer returns than rough and perilous fishing. 
In this way the fur-trade, which became the life 
of Canada, had its beginning. 

The first chapters of the story were gloomy 
and disheartening beyond description. The 
dreadful scurvy and the cruel cold scourged 
the newcomers. Party after party perished mis- 

lOl 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

erably. The story of one of these is singularly 
romantic. When Sable Island* was reached, its 
leader, the Marquis de la Roche, landed forty 
ragamuffins, while he sailed on with the best men 
of his crew to examine the coast and choose a 
site for the capital of his promising domain. 

Alas ! he never returned. A gale swept his 
little craft out to sea and drove him back to 
France. 

When he landed, the sun of his prosperity had 
set. Creditors swooped down upon him, political 
enemies rose in troops, and the " Lieutenant- 
General of Canada and the adjacent countries " 
was clapped in jail like a common malefactor. 
Meanwhile what of the forty promising colonists 
on Sable Island ? They dropped for years out 
of human knowledge as completely as Henry 
Hudson when dastardly mutineers set him adrift 
in an open boat in the bay which bears his name,^ 
or Narvaez and his brilliant expedition whose fate 
was a mystery until the appearance of four sur- 
vivors, eight years afterward.^ 

1 A low, sandy island, about one hundred miles southeast of 
Nova Scotia, to which it belongs. 

2 See "The World's Discoverers," p. 340. 

8 See " Pioneer Spaniards in North America," p. 206. 

102 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

Five years went by, and twelve uncouth crea- 
tures stood before Henry the Fourth, clad in 
shaggy skins, and with long, unkempt beards. 
They were the remnant of La Roche's jailbirds. 
He had at last gained a hearing from the King, 
and a vessel had been sent to Sable Island to 
bring home the survivors of his party. What a 
story they told ! When months passed, and 
La Roche came not, they thought they were left 
to their fate. They built huts of the timbers of 
a wreck which lay on the beach — for there was 
not a tree on the island — and so faced the dreary 
winter. With trapping foxes, spearing seals, and 
hunting wild cattle, descendants of some which a 
certain Baron de Lery had left eight years before, 
they managed to eke out existence, not without 
quarrels and murders among themselves. At 
last the remnant was taken off by the vessel which 
Henry sent for them. 

Shaggy and uncouth as they looked, they 
had a small fortune in the furs which they 
had accumulated. This wealth had not escaped 
the notice of the thrifty skipper who brought 
them home, and he had robbed them. But 
the King not only compelled the dishonest 
sea-captain to disgorge his plunder, but aided 

103 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

its owners with a pension in setting up in the 
fur-trade. 

Such dismal experiences filled more than fifty 
years of futile effort to colonize New France. 
Cold and scurvy as effectually closed the North 
to Frenchmen as Spanish savagery the South. 

Then, in this disheartening state of affairs, ap- 
peared the man who well deserves the title of the 
" Father of New France," since his courage and 
indomitable will steered the tiny " ship of state " 
through a sea of discouragements. 

Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567 at the 
small French seaport of Brouage, on the Bay of 
Biscay. In his pious devotion and his unques- 
tioning loyalty to the Church, he was of the "Age 
of Faith," and he recalls Columbus. In his eager 
thirst for knowledge and his daring spirit of ex- 
ploration, he was a modern man, while his practi- 
cal ability in handling men and affairs reminds 
us of the doughty Captain John Smith, of Virginia. 
He came to manhood in time to take part in the 
great religious wars in France. After the con- 
flict was ended, when his master, Henry the Great, 
was seated on the throne, Champlain's adventur- 
ous spirit led him to the West Indies. Since 
these were closed to Frenchmen by the jealousy 

104 




Samuel de Champlain 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

of the Spaniards, there was a degree of peril in the 
undertaking which for him was its chief charm. 
After two years he returned, bringing a journal 
in which he had set down the most notable things 
seen in Spanish America. It was illustrated with 
a number of the quaintest pictures, drawn and 
colored by himself. He also visited Mexico and 
Central America. His natural sagacity is shown 
in his suggesting, even at that early day, that a 
ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama would 
effect a vast saving. 

In 1603, in two quaint little vessels, not larger 
than the fishing craft of to-day, Cham plain and 
Pontgrave, who was interested in the fur-trade, 
crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence. 
When they came to Hochelaga, on the site of 
Montreal, they found there only a few shiftless 
and roving Algonquins.^ 

The explorers passed on and boldly essayed, 
but in vain, to ascend the rapids of St. Louis. 
When they sailed for France, however, a great 
purpose was formed in Champlain's mind. What 

^ At the time of Champlain's coming on the scene, fierce war 
existed between the Algonquins and the Iroquois. This fact 
accounts for the disappearance of the thrifty Iroquois village, with 
its palisade and cornfields, which Cartier had found on the spot, 
sixty-eight years earlier. 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

he had gathered from the Indians as to the great 
waters above, the vast chain of rivers and lakes, 
determined the scene of his future activity. 

His next venture in the New World was made 
in association with the Sieur de Monts, a Hugue- 
not gentleman, who had obtained leave to plant 
a colony in Acadia (Nova Scotia). With a band 
of colonists — if we can apply that name to a 
motley assemblage of jailbirds and high-born 
gentlemen, of Catholic priests and Protestant 
ministers — they sailed for America in 1604. 

Thirty years of bloody warfare in France had 
but recently come to an end, and the followers of 
the two faiths were still full of bitter hatred. It 
is easy, therefore, to believe Champlain's report 
that monk and minister quarreled incessantly and 
sometimes came to blows over religious questions. 

This state of feeling came near to causing the 
death of an innocent man. After the New World 
had been reached, and when the expedition was 
coasting along the eastern shore of the Bay of 
Fundy, seeking a place for a settlement, one day 
a party went ashore to stroll in the woods. On 
reassembling, a priest named Nicolas Aubry 
was missing. Trumpets were sounded and can- 
non fired from the ships. All in vain. There 

106 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

was no reply but the echo of the ancient forest. 
Then suspicion fell upon a certain Huguenot with 
whom Aubry had often quarreled. He was ac- 
cused of having killed the missing priest. In 
spite of his strenuous denial of the charge, many 
persons firmly believed him guilty. Thus mat- 
ters stood for more than two weeks. One day, 
however, the crew of a boat that had been sent 
back to the neighborhood where the priest had 
disappeared heard a strange sound and saw a 
small black object in motion on the shore. 
Rowing nearer, they descried a man waving a 
hat on a stick. Imagine their surprise and joy 
when they recognized Aubry ! He had become 
separated from his comrades, had lost his way, 
and for sixteen days of misery and terror had 
kept himself alive on berries and wild fruits. 

The place finally selected for settlement was a 
dreary island near the mouth of the St. Croix 
River, which now forms the boundary between 
Maine and New Brunswick. It had but one 
recommendation, namely, that it was admirably 
suited for defence, and these Frenchmen, reared 
in war-time, seem to have thought more of that 
single advantage than of the far more pressing 
needs of a colony. Cannon were landed, a bat- 

107 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

tery was built, and a fort was erected. Then 
buildings quickly followed, and by the autumn 
the whole party was well housed in its settlement, 
called Sainte Croix (Holy Cross). The river 
they named differently, but it has since borne the 
title of that ill-starred colony. 

When winter came, the island, exposed to the 
fierce winds blowing down the river, was fearfully 
cold. Ice floated by in great masses, frequently 
cutting off the settlers from the mainland and 
from their supplies of wood and water. The 
terror of those days, the scurvy, soon appeared, 
and by the spring nearly half of the seventy-nine 
men lay in the little cemetery. Of the survivors 
the greater number had no other desire than to 
flee from the scene of so much misery. They 
were cheered, however, when Pontgrave arrived 
from France with supplies and forty new men. 

In the hope of securing a more favorable site 
in a warmer latitude, Champlain, who already 
had explored a part of the coast and had visited 
and named the island of Mount Desert, set out 
in a small vessel with Monts and about thirty 
men on a voyage of discovery. They followed 
the shores of Maine closely, and by the middle 
of July were off^ Cape Ann. Then they entered 

io8 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

Massachusetts Bay. The islands of Boston Har- 
bor, now so bare, Champlain describes as covered 
with trees. The aboriginal inhabitants of the 
region seem to have felt a friendly interest in 
the distinguished strangers. Canoe-loads of them 
came out to gaze on the strange spectacle of the 
little vessel, with its bearded and steel-clad crew. 

Down the South Shore the voyagers held their 
way, anchoring for the night near Brant Rock. 
A head wind drove them to take shelter in a har- 
bor which Champlain called Port St. Louis, the 
same which, fifteen years afterward, welcomed the 
brave Pilgrims. The shore was at that time 
lined with wigwams and garden-patches. The 
inhabitants were very friendly. While some 
danced on the beach, others who had been fishing 
came on board the vessel without any sign of 
alarm, showing their fish-hooks, which were of 
barbed bone lashed to a slip of wood.^ 

The glistening white sand of a promontory 

^ These Massachusetts Algonquins evidently were of a higher 
type than their kinsmen on the St. Lawrence. Far from depending 
wholly on hunting and fishing, they lived in permanent villages and 
were largely an agricultural people, growing considerable crops. 
At the time of the coming of the Pilgrims, whom they instructed 
in corn-planting, this thrifty native population had been sadly 
wasted by an epidemic of small-pox. 

109 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

stretching out into the sea suggested to Cham- 
plain the name which he bestowed. Cap Blanc 
(White Cape, now Cape Cod). Doubling it, he 
held his way southward as far as Nausett Har- 
bor. Here misfortune met the party. As some 
sailors were seeking fresh water behind the sand- 
hills, an Indian snatched a kettle from one of 
them. Its owner, pursuing him, was killed by 
his comrades' arrows. The French fired from 
the vessel, and Champlain's arquebuse burst, 
nearly killing him. In the meantime several In- 
dians who were on board leaped so quickly into 
the water that only one was caught. He was 
afterward humanely released. 

This untoward incident, together with a grow- 
ing scarcity of provisions, decided the voyagers 
to turn back. Early in August they reached St. 
Croix. 

Discouraged as to finding a site on the New 
England coast, Champlain and Monts began to 
look across the Bay of Fundy, at first called Le 
Fond de la Baye (the bottom of the bay). 

A traveler crossing this water from the west 
will see a narrow gap in the bold and rugged out- 
line of the shore. Entering it, he will be struck 
with its romantic beauty, and he will note the 

no 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

tide rushing like a mill-race, for this narrow pas- 
sage is the outlet of a considerable inland water. 
The steamer, passing through, emerges into a 
wide, land-locked basin offering an enchanting 
view. Fourteen miles northward is Annapolis 
Harbor, shut in on every side by verdant hills. 

This is the veritable Acadia, the beautiful land 
of Evangeline, and here was made the first settle- 
ment of Frenchmen in North America that had 
any degree of permanence. 

The explorers had discovered and entered this 
enchanting basin in the previous summer. Now 
its beauty recurred to them, and they determined 
to remove thither. In their vessels they trans- 
ported their stores and even parts of their build- 
ings across the Bay of Fundy and laid the 
foundation of a settlement which they called 
Port Royal, afterward renamed by loyal Britons 
Annapolis, in honor of Queen Anne. 

The season proved very severe, and in the 
spring it was decided to persevere in the project 
of planting a colony, if possible, in a warmer re- 
gion. For the second time Champlain sailed 
down the New England coast. 

At Chatham Harbor, as the place is now 
called, five of the voyagers, contrary to orders, 

III 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

were spending the night ashore. The word 
quickly passed around among the Indians that 
a number of the palefaces were in their power. 
Through the dark hours of the night dusky 
warriors gathered at the meeting-place, until they 
numbered hundreds. Then they stole silently 
toward the camp-fire where the unsuspecting 
Frenchmen lay sleeping. Suddenly a savage yell 
aroused them, and arrows fell in a shower upon 
them. Two never rose, slain where they lay. 
The others fled to their boat, fairly bristling with 
arrows sticking in them, according to the quaint 
picture which Champlain made. 

In the meantime, he, with Poutrincourt and 
eight men, aroused from their sleep by the horrid 
cries on the shore, had leaped from their berths, 
snatched their weapons, and, clad only in their 
shirts, pulled to the rescue of their comrades. 
They charged, and the dusky enemy fled into the 
woods. Mournfully the voyagers buried their 
dead, while the barbarians, from a safe distance, 
jibed and jeered at them. No sooner had the 
little party rowed back to the ship than they saw 
the Indians dig up the dead bodies and burn 
them. The incensed Frenchmen, by a treacher- 
ous device, lured some of the assailants within 

112 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

their reach, killed them, and cut off their 

Then, discouraged by the savage hostility of 
the natives, they turned homeward and, late m 
November, the most of the men sick in body 
and at heart, reached Port Royal. 

Thus ended disastrously Champlain's second 
attempt to find a lodgment on the New England 
coast. But he was not a man to be disheartened 
by difficulties. 

Soon the snows of another winter began to tall 
upon Port Royal, that lonely outpost of civiliza- 
tion But let us not imagine that the little colony 
was oppressed with gloom. There were jolly 
times around the blazing logs in the rude hall, of 
winter evenings. They had abundant food, fine 
fresh fish, speared through the ice of the river or 
taken from the bay, with the flesh of moose, cari- 
bou, deer, beaver, and hare, and of ducks, geese, 
and grouse, and they had organized an " Order 
of Good Fellowship." 

Each member of the company was Grand Mas- 
ter for one day, and it was his duty to provide 
for the table and then to preside at the feast 
which he had prepared. This arrangement put 
each one on his mettle to lay up a good store for 
8 113 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

the day when he would do the honors of the 
feast. The Indian chiefs sat with the Frenchmen 
as their guests, while the warriors and squaws and 
children squatted on the floor, awaiting the bits 
of food that v/ere sure to come to them. 

In this picture we have an illustration of the 
ease with which the Frenchmen always adapted 
themselves to the natives. It was the secret of 
their success in forming alliances with the Indians, 
and it was in marked contrast with the harsh con- 
duct of the English and the ruthless cruelty of 
the Spaniards. No Indian tribes inclined to the 
English, except the Five Nations, and these 
chiefly because their sworn enemies, the Algon- 
quins of the St. Lawrence, were hand in glove 
with the French. None came into contact with 
the Spaniards who did not execrate them. But 
the sons of France mingled freely with the dusky 
children of the soil, made friends of them and 
quickly won numbers of them to learn their 
language and adopt their religion. From inter- 
marriages of Frenchmen with Indian women 
there grew up in Canada a large class of half- 
breed " voyageurs " (travelers) and " coureurs 
de bois " (wood-rangers), who in times of peace 
were skilful hunters and pioneers, and in times 

114 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

of war helped to bind fast the ties between the 
two races. 

In this pleasant fashion the third winter of the 
colony wore away with little suffering. Only 
four men died. With the coming of spring all 
began to bestir themselves in various activities, 
and everything looked hopeful. 

Alas ! a bitter disappointment was at hand. 
News came from France that Monts's monopoly 
of the fur-trade had been rescinded. The mer- 
chants of various ports in France, incensed at 
being shut out from a lucrative traffic, had used 
money freely at court and had succeeded in hav- 
ing his grant withdrawn. All the money spent 
in establishing the colony was to go for nothing. 

Worst of all. Port Royal must be abandoned. 
Its cornfields and gardens must become a wilder- 
ness, and the fair promise of a permanent colony 
must wither. It was a cruel blow to Champlain 
and his associates, and not less so to the Indians, 
who followed their departing friends with bitter 
lamentations. 



115 



chapter IX 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN {Continued) 

THE FRENCH ON THE ST. LAWRENCE AND 
THE GREAT LAKES 



Chapter IX 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN {Continued) 

THE FRENCH ON THE ST. LAWRENCE AND 
THE GREAT LAKES 

Champlain's Motives in returning to America. — How the 
Monopoly of the Fur-trade affected the Men engaged in it. — 
Fight with Free-traders at Tadoussac. — The Founding of 
Quebec. — The First Bitter Winter. — Champlain starts on 
an Exploration. — Discovery of Lake Champlain. — Fight 
with a Band of Iroquois. — Its Unfortunate Consequences. — 
Another Fight with Iroquois. — Montreal founded. — Cham- 
plain's most Important Exploration. — Lake Huron discov- 
ered. — A Deer Drive. — Defeated by Iroquois. — Champlain 
lost in the Woods. — His Closing Years and Death. 

1ITHERTO Champlain has appeared 
at a disadvantage, because he was 
in a subordinate capacity. Now we 
shall see his genius shine, because he 
is in command. 

In 1608 he returned to America, not, however, 
to Nova Scotia, but to the St. Lawrence. Three 
motives chiefly actuated him. The first was the 
unquenchable desire to find a water-way through 
our continent to China. When, in 1603, he ex- 

119 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

plored the St. Lawrence as far as the rapids 
beyond Montreal, what he heard from the 
Indians about the great inland seas created in 
his mind a strong conviction that through them 
was a passage to the Pacific, such as the early- 
explorers, notably Henry Hudson (See " The 
World's Discoverers," p. 328), believed to exist. 

The next motive was exceedingly practical. 
Champlain was deeply impressed with the need 
of planting strongholds on the great streams 
draining the vast fur-yielding region, so as to 
shut out intruders and secure the precious traffic 
to his countrymen. Let France, he argued, plant 
herself boldly and strongly on the St. Lawrence, 
that great highway for the savage's canoe and 
the white man's ship, and she would control 
the fur-trade. 

The other idea active in his mind was an ear- 
nest desire for the conversion of the Indians. It 
is undeniable that France was genuinely inter- 
ested in christianizing the natives of America. 
Some of the most heroic spirits who came to 
our country came with that object in view, and 
Champlain was too devoted a Catholic not to 
share the Church's concern on this point. 

So he came out, in the spring of 1608, in com- 
120 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

mand of a vessel furnished by the Sleur de Monts 
for exploration and settlement. When he reached 
the desolate trading-post of Tadoussac/ an incident 
occurred that illustrates the reluctance of men to 
submit to curtailment of their natural rights. If 
it was hard for men in France to submit patiently 
to being shut out of a lucrative business by the 
government's granting the sole right to particular 
persons, how far more difficult must it have been 
for men who were on the coasts or rivers of the 
New World, who had already been engaged in 
the traffic, and who had opportunities to trade 
constantly inviting them ! An Indian, let us say, 
paddled alongside with a bundle of valuable furs, 
eager to get the things which the white men had 
and beseeching them to barter. But no ; they 
must not deal with him, because they were not 
employed to buy and sell for the one man who 
controlled the business. 

Of course, many evaded the law, and there was 
a vast deal of illicit trading in the lonely forests 
of New France which the watchful eye of the 

^ This place, at the confluence of the Saguenay with the St. 
Lawrence, was peculiarly well situated for the fur-trade. The 
Saguenay, having its head-waters far to the north in the dreary 
region near Hudson Bay, rich in furs, was the route by which the 
natives of that wild country brought their peltries to market. 

121 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

monopolist could not penetrate. Often there 
were violent and bloody collisions between his 
employees and the free-traders. 

Now, when Champlain reached Tadoussac he 
found his associate, Pontgrave, who had sailed a 
week ahead of him, in serious trouble. On 
arriving at Tadoussac, he had found some 
Basques driving a brisk trade with the Indians. 
These Basques were fierce fellows. They be- 
longed to one of the oldest races in the world, 
a race that has inhabited the slopes of the 
Pyrenees, on both the Spanish and the French 
sides, so far back that nobody knows when it 
came thither ; moreover, a sullen and vengeful 
race. They were also daring voyagers, and their 
fishing-vessels had been among the earliest to 
visit the New World, where their name for cod- 
fish, baccalaos, had been given to Newfound- 
land, which bears that title on the oldest maps. 
They had traded with the Indians long before 
any grant of monopoly to anybody, and they 
felt that such a grant deprived them of a long- 
established right. 

When Pontgrave showed the royal letters and 
forbade the traffic, these men swore roundly that 
they would trade in spite of the King, and backed 

122 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

up their words by promptly opening fire on 
Pontgrave with cannon and musketry. He was 
wounded, as well as two of his men, and a third 
was killed. Then they boarded his vessel and 
carried away all his cannon, small arms, and am- 
munition, saying that they would restore them 
when they had finished their trading and were 
ready to return home. 

Champlain's arrival completely changed the sit- 
uation. The Basques, who were now the weaker 
party, were glad to come to terms, agreeing to go 
away and employ themselves in whale-fishing. 
Leaving the wounded Pontgrave to load his ship 
with a rich cargo of furs, Champlain held his way 
up the St. Lawrence. 

A place where the broad stream is shut in be- 
tween opposing heights and which the Indians 
called Kebec (" The Narrows "), seemed an ideal 
situation for a stronghold, being indeed a natural 
fortress. On this spot, between the water and 
the cliffs, where the Lower Town now stands, 
Champlain, in 1608, founded the city of Quebec. 
Its beginnings were modest indeed — three wooden 
buildings containing quarters for the leader and 
his men, a large storehouse, and a fort with two 
or three small cannon commanding the river. 

123 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

The Basques, all this time, were sullenly brood- 
ing over the wrong which they conceived had 
been done them. One day Champlain was 
secretly informed of a plot among his men to 
murder him and deliver Quebec into their hands. 
He acted with his usual cool determination. 
Through the agency of the man who had be- 
trayed them, the four ringleaders were lured on 
board a small vessel with a promise of enjoying 
some wine which was said to have been sent 
from Tadoussac by their friends, the Basques. 
They were seized, and the arch-conspirator was 
immediately hanged, while the other three were 
taken by Pontgrave back to France, where they 
were sentenced to the gallows. After these 
prompt measures Champlain had no more trouble 
with his men. 

Now he was left with twenty-eight men to hold 
Quebec through the winter. One would think 
that the cruel sufferings endured by Cartier on 
the same spot, seventy-three years earlier, would 
have intimidated him. But he was made of stern 
stuff. Soon the rigors of a Canadian winter set- 
tled down on the little post. For neighbors the 
Frenchmen had only a band of Indians, half- 
starving and wholly wretched, as was the usual 

124 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

winter condition of the roving Algonquins, who 
never tilled the soil or made sufficient provision 
against the cold. The French often gave them 
food which they needed sorely. Champlain writes 
of seeing some miserable wretches seize the car- 
cass of a dog which had lain for months on the 
snow, break it up, thaw, and eat it. 

It proved a fearful winter. The scurvy raged 
among the Frenchmen, and only eight, half of 
them sick, remained alive out of the twenty-eight. 
Thus this first winter at Quebec makes the first 
winter of the Pilgrims at Plymouth seem, by 
comparison, almost a mild experience. 

With the early summer Pontgrave was back 
from France, and now Champlain, strenuous as 
ever, determined on carrying out his daring pro- 
ject of exploration, in the hope of finding a route 
to China. His plan was to march with a war- 
party of Algonquins and Hurons against their 
deadly foes, the Iroquois, thus penetrating the 
region which he wished to explore. 

Going up the St. Lawrence as far as the mouth 
of the Richelieu or Sorel River, and then ascend- 
ing this stream, the party entered the enemy's 
country. On the way Champlain had oppor- 
tunities of witnessing a most interesting ceremony. 

125 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

At every camp the medicine-man, or sorcerer, 
pitched the magic lodge, of poles covered with 
dirty deerskin robes, and retired within to hold 
communion with the unseen' powers, while the 
worshipers sat around in gaping awe. Soon 
a low muttering was heard, the voice of the 
medicine-man invoking the spirits. Then came 
the alleged answer, the lodge rocking to and fro 
in violent motion. Champlain could see that 
the sorcerer was shaking the poles. But the In- 
dians fully believed that the Manitou was present 
and acting. Next they heard its voice, they de- 
clared, speak in an unearthly tone, something like 
the whining of a young puppy. Then they called 
on Champlain to see fire and smoke issuing from 
the peak of the lodge. Of course, he did not see 
any such thing but they did, and were satisfied.^ 

1 The Indians we.e much given to various forms of divination 
by which they believed that they ascertained the will of the unseen 
powers. 

Jonathan Carver, who traveled much among the western tribes, 
about 1766, relates that once when he was with a band of Chris- 
tinos, or Crees, on the north shore of Lake Superior, anxiously 
awaiting the coming of certain traders with goods, the chief told 
him that the medicine-man, or conjurer, or " clairvoyant" as we 
should say, would try to get some information from the Manitou. 
Elaborate preparations were made. In a spacious tent, brightly 
lighted with torches of pitch-pine, the conjurer, wrapped in a large 
elk-skin, and corded with about forty yards of elk-hide lariat — 

126 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

Soon the river broadened, and Champlain, first 
of all white men, gazed on the beautiful lake 
that bears his name. Now traveling became dan- 
gerous, and the party moved only in the night, 
for fear of suddenly encountering a band of the 
enemy, whom they hoped to surprise. Their 
plan was to traverse the length of Lake Cham- 
plain, then pass into Lake George and follow it 
to a convenient landing, thence carry their canoes 
through the woods to the Hudson River, and 
descend it to some point where they might strike 
an outlying town of the Mohawks.-^ 

"bound up like an Egyptian mummy" — was laid down in the 
midst of the assembly, in full view of all. 

Presently he began to mutter, then to jabber a mixed jargon of 
several native tongues, sometimes raving, sometimes praying, till he 
had worked himself into a frenzy and foamed at the mouth. 

Suddenly he leaped to his feet, shaking off his bands <'as if they 
were burnt asunder," and announced that the Manitou had revealed 
to him that, just at noon on the next day, there would arrive a 
canoe the occupants of which would bring news as to the expected 
traders. 

On the next day Carver and his Indian friends were on the bluff 
watching. At the appointed hour a canoe (undoubtedly sent by 
the conjurer) came into view and was hailed by the Indians with 
shouts of delight. It brought tidings of the early coming of the 
traders. 

1 This was the established route used by the Indians. By it one 
could pass by water, with only the short carry between Lake George 
and the Hudson, all the way from the Great Lakes to the ocean. 

127 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

They were saved the trouble of so long a jour- 
ney. One night, while they were still on Lake 
Champlain, they caught sight of dark objects 
moving on the water. A fleet of Iroquois canoes 
they proved to be. Each party saw the other 
and forthwith began to yell defiance. The Iro- 
quois immediately landed and began to cut down 
trees and form a barricade, preferring to fight on 
shore. The Hurons remained in their canoes 
all night, not far off, yelling themselves hoarse. 
Indeed, both parties incessantly howled abuse, 
sarcasm, and threats at each other. They spoke 
the same language, the Hurons being a branch 
of the Iroquois family. 

When morning came the allies moved to the 
attack, Champlain encased in steel armor. He 
and two other Frenchmen whom he had with 
him, each in a separate canoe, kept themselves 
covered with Indian robes, so that their presence 
was not suspected. The party landed without 
any opposition and made ready for the fray. 
Soon the Iroquois filed out from their barricade 
and advanced, some two hundred in number, 
many of them carrying shields of wood covered 
with hide, others protected by a rude armor of 
tough twigs interlaced. 

128 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

As they confidently marched forward, Imagine 
their amazement when the ranks of the enemy 
suddenly opened, and their steel-clad champion 
stepped to the front ! It was an apparition that 
might well cause consternation among these men 
of the wilderness, not one of whom probably had 
ever seen a white man. 

What follows is thus described by Champlain : 
" I looked at them, and they looked at me. 
When I saw them getting ready to shoot their 
arrows at us, I leveled my arquebuse, which I 
had loaded with four balls, and aimed straight at 
one of the three chiefs. The shot brought down 
two and wounded another. On this, our Indians 
set up such a yelling that one could not have 
heard a thunder-clap, and all the while the arrows 
flew thick on both sides. The Iroquois were 
greatly astonished and frightened to see two of 
their men killed so quickly, in spite of their 
arrow-proof armor." When one of Champlain's 
companions fired a shot from the woods, panic 
seized them, and they fled in terror. 

The victory was complete. Some of the Iro- 
quois were killed, more were taken, and their 
camp, canoes, and provisions all fell into the 
hands of the visitors. 

9 129 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

This fight, insignificant in itself, had tremen- 
dous consequences. Champlain had inconsider- 
ately aroused the vengeance of a terrible enemy. 
From that day forth, the mighty confederacy of the 
Five Nations, embracing the Mohawks, Oneidas, 
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, was the deadly 
foe of the French. This circumstance gave to the 
English, in the long struggle for the supremacy 
of America, the aid of the craftiest, boldest, and 
most formidable native warriors on the continent. 

Another noteworthy thing is that this fight 
occurred in just the year in which Hudson as- 
cended the river since named for him. His ex- 
ploration, made in the interest of the Dutch, led 
to their planting trading-posts on the river.^ 

^ The thrifty Hollanders at once saw the importance of securing 
the fur-trade of the region thus opened to them. To protect it, 
they first established at the mouth of the river, on Manhattan Is- 
land, the post out of which the city of New York has grown. Next 
they reared a fort on an island a little below Albany ; and, in 
1623, they built Fort Orange, on the site of Albany. It soon be- 
came a most important point, because, until Fort Stanwix, on the 
Mohawk, was built, it was the nearest white man's post to which 
the Indians of the great Iroquois confederacy might bring their pel- 
tries. We hear much of it in the early history. 

The great trading-stations were always on big rivers, because 
these drained a wide territory, and the supply of furs lasted long. 
As the French pushed further westward, as we shall see, important 
stations were opened on the Great Lakes. 

130 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

Previously the Iroquois Iiad been at a dis- 
advantage, because their enemies, the Hurons, 
could procure fire-arms from the French, whereas 
they had not any. But the Dutch traders on the 
Hudson soon began to sell guns to the Iroquois ; 
and thus one of the first effects of the coming of 
white men into the wilderness was to equip these 
two savage races for a deadlier warfare. 

The next summer Champlain had another op- 
portunity of taking a hand in a fight between 
Indians. A canoe came with the excitino; news 
that, a few miles away in the woods, a band of 
Algonquins had surrounded an invading party of 
Iroquois who were making a desperate stand 
within an inclosure of trees. His Indians 
snatched their weapons and raced for the scene, 
shouting to Champlain to follow, but leaving him 
and four of his men to find their way as best they 
could. They were soon lost in the dense woods. 
The day was hot, and the air was full of mosqui- 
toes. The Frenchmen struggled on through 
black mud and knee-deep water and over fallen 
trees and slimy logs, panting under their heavy 
corselets ; but not a sound could they hear to 
guide them to the spot. 

At last two Indians running to the fight over- 

131 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

took them and led them to the place where the 
Iroquois, within a circular barricade of trees and 
interlaced boughs, were fighting savagely. They 
had beaten off their assailants with heavy loss. 
When the Frenchmen came up, they received a 
flight of well-aimed arrows from the desperate de- 
fenders. One split Champlain's ear and tore 
through the muscles of his neck. Another in- 
flicted a similar wound on one of his men. The 
Indians, seeing the Europeans' heads and breasts 
covered with steel, had aimed at their faces. But 
fire-arms soon changed the situation. The 
Frenchmen ran up close to the barricade, thrust 
their weapons through the openings, and poured 
dismay and death among the defenders. The In- 
dian assailants, too, encouraged by this example, 
rushed in and dragged out the trees of the barri- 
cade. At the same time a boat's crew of fur- 
traders, who had been attracted by the firing, 
rushed upon the scene and used their guns with 
deadly effect. 

The Iroquois, surrounded and overwhelmed 
by numbers, fought to the last. The most were 
killed on the spot. Only fifteen survived and 
were taken prisoners. Thus the fiercest warriors 
of North America experienced a second disaster 

132 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

which could not but result in deepening their 
hatred of the French. These early successes of 
Champlain were dearly paid for by his country- 
men long after he was dead. 

In the following spring (1611) Champlain did 
another memorable thing : he established a post, 
which afterward grew into a trading-station, at 
Montreal. Thus the two oldest and most his- 
toric towns of Canada owe their foundation to 
him. 

Champlain purposed accompanying a great force 
of Algonquins and Hurons in an inroad into the 
Iroquois country. The savage warriors, however, 
unwilling to wait for him, set out for their villages, 
taking with them an adventurous friar named Le 
Caron. But Champlain was not to be baulked 
by this circumstance. He immediately started on 
the track of the larger party, with ten Indians and 
two Frenchmen, one of whom was his interpreter, 
Etienne Brule. He went up the Ottawa River, 
made a portage through the woods, and launched 
his canoes on the waters of Lake Nipissing, pass- 
ing through the country of a tribe so sunk in de- 
grading superstitions, that the Jesuits afterward 
called them " the Sorcerers." 

After resting here two days and feasting on 

133 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

fish and deer, which must have been very wel- 
come diet after the scant fare of the journey, he 
descended French River, which empties the 
waters of Nipissing into Lake Huron. On the 
way down, hunger again pinched his party, and 
they were forced to subsist on berries which, 
happily, grew in great abundance. At last a wel- 
come sight greeted Champlain. Lake Huron lay 
before him. He called it the " Mer Douce " 
(Fresh-water Sea). 

Down the eastern shore of the Georgian Bay 
for more than a hundred miles Champlain took 
his course, through countless islets, to its lower 
end. Then his Indians landed and struck into 
a well-beaten trail leading into the heart of the 
Huron country, between Lakes Huron and 
Ontario. Here he witnessed a degree of social 
advancement far beyond that of the shiftless Al- 
gonquins on the St. Lawrence. Here were people 
living in permanent villages protected by triple 
palisades of trees, and cultivating fields of maize 
and pumpkins and patches of sunflowers. To 
him, coming from gloomy desolation, this seemed 
a land of beauty and abundance. 

The Hurons welcomed him with lavish hospi- 
tality, expecting that he would lead them to 

134 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

victory. He was taken from village to village. 
In the last he found the friar Le Caron with his 
twelve Frenchmen. Now there were feasts and 
dances for several days, while the warriors assembled 
for the march into the Iroquois country. Then 
the little army set out, carrying their canoes until 
they came to Lake Simcoe. After crossing this 
there came another portage, after which the canoes 
were launched again on the waters of the river 
Trent. Down this they made their way until 
they came to a suitable spot for a great hunt. 
The Frenchmen watched the proceedings and 
took part in them with great zest. Five hundred 
men, forming an extended line, moved through 
the woods, gradually closing in toward a wooded 
point on which they drove the game. Then they 
swept along it to its very end. The frightened 
deer, driven into the water, were easily killed by 
the canoe-men with spears and arrows. Such a 
great hunt supplied the place of a commissary 
department and furnished food for many days. 
Out upon Lake Ontario the fleet of frail barks 
boldly ventured, crossed it safely, and landed on 
the shore of what is now New York State. Here 
the Indians hid their canoes. Now they were on 
the enemy's soil and must move cautiously. For 

135 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

four days they filed silently through the woods, 
crossing the outlet of Lake Oneida, and plunged 
deep into the Iroquois country. One day they 
came upon a clearing in which some of the people 
of the neighboring villages were gathering corn 
and pumpkins. 

Some of the impetuous young Hurons uttered 
their savage yell and rushed upon them. But 
the Iroquois seized their weapons and defended 
themselves so well that they drove back their as- 
sailants with some loss. Only the Frenchmen, 
opening fire, saved the Hurons from worse dis- 
aster. Then the attacking party moved on to 
the village. This Champlain found to be far 
more strongly defended than any he had ever seen 
among the Indians. There were not less than 
four rows of palisades, consisting of trunks of trees 
set in the earth and leaning outward ; and there 
was a kind of gallery well supplied with stones 
and provided with wooden gutters for quenching 
fire. 

Something more than the hap-hazard methods 
of the Hurons was needed to capture this strong- 
hold, and Champlain instructed them how to set 
about it. Under his direction, they built a wooden 
tower high enough to overlook the palisades and 

136 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

large enough to shelter four or five marksmen. 
When this had been planted within a few feet 
of the fortification, three arquebusiers mounted 
to the top and thence opened a deadly raking fire 
along the crowded galleries. Had the assailants 
confined themselves to this species of attack and 
heeded Champlain's warnings, the result would 
have been different But their fury was ungovern- 
able. Yelling their war-cry, they exposed them- 
selves recklessly to the stones and arrows of the 
Iroquois. One, bolder than the rest, ran forward 
with firebrands to burn the paUsade, and others 
followed with wood to feed the flame. But tor- 
rents of water poured down from the gutters 
quickly extinguished it. In vain Champlain 
strove to restore order among the yelling savages. 
Finding himself unable to control his frenzied 
allies, he and his men busied themselves with 
picking off the Iroquois along the ramparts. After 
three hours of this bootless fighting, the Hurons 
fell back, with seventeen warriors wounded.^ 
Champlain himself was disabled by two wounds, 

1 We may wonder at so small a list of casualties. The fact is 
that, until the introduction of fire-arms, Indian open fighting was 
not very deadly. They might yell and screech and shoot arrows 
at each other for hours, with very little loss. Surprises and am- 
buscades were their most effective methods. 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

one in the knee and one in the leg, which hindered 
him from walking. Still he urged the Hurons to 
renew the attack. But in vain. From overween- 
ing confidence the fickle savages had passed to 
the other extreme. Nothing could inspire them 
to another assault. Moreover, Champlain had 
lost much of his peculiar influence over them. 
They had fancied that, with him in front, suc- 
cess was sure. Now they saw that he could be 
wounded, and by Indian weapons, and they had 
experienced a defeat the blame of which they un- 
doubtedly laid at his door. His " medicine " ^ 
was not the sure thing they had thought it to 
be, and no words of his could raise their spirits. 
After a few days of ineffective skirmishing, they 
hastily broke up in retreat, carrying their wounded 
in the centre, while the Iroquois pursued and 
harassed the flanks and rear. 

Champlain was treated like the rest of the 
wounded. Each was carried in a rude basket 
made of green withes, on the back of a stout 
warrior. For days he traveled in this way, 
enduring, he says, greater torment than he had 

1 This word came into general use among French njoyageurs 
and, later, among white men generally, as the equivalent of an 
Indian word denoting mysterious power. 

138 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

ever before experienced, " for the pain of the 
wound was nothing to that of being bound and 
pinioned on the back of a savage." As soon as 
he could bear his weight, he was glad to walk. 

When the shore of Lake Ontario was reached, 
the canoes were found untouched, and the crest- 
fallen band embarked and recrossed to the op- 
posite side. Now Champlain experienced one 
of the consequences of his loss of prestige. The 
Hurons had promised him an escort to Quebec. 
But nobody was willing to undertake the journey. 
The great war-party broke up, the several bands 
going off to their wonted hunting-grounds, and 
Champlain was left with no choice but to spend 
the winter with the Hurons. One of their chiefs 
invited him to share his lodge, and he was glad 
to accept this hospitality. 

Shortly afterward he met with a notable ad- 
venture. The Hurons were waiting for a hard 
frost to give them passage over the lakes and 
marshes that lay between them and their towns. 
Meanwhile they occupied themselves with hunt- 
ing. One day Champlain was out with them. 
For ten days twenty-five men had been at work, 
preparing for a huge "drive." They had built 
a strong enclosure, from the opening of which 

139 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

ran two diverging fences of posts interlaced with 
boughs, extending more than half a mile into the 
woods. At daybreak the most of the warriors 
formed a long line and, with shouts and the 
clattering of sticks, drove the deer toward the 
pound. The frightened animals rushed down 
the converging lines of fence into the trap, where 
they were easily killed. 

Champlain was enjoying- watching the sport, 
when a strange bird lured him off, and he lost 
his way. The day was cloudy, there was no sun 
to guide him, and his pocket-compass he had left 
in camp. 

All his efforts to retrace his steps failed. At 
last night came on, and he lay down and slept, 
supperless, at the foot of a tree. The whole of 
the next day he wandered, but in the afternoon 
he came to a pond where there were some water- 
fowl along the shore. He shot some of these, 
kindled a fire, cooked his food, and ate with 
relish. It was dreary November weather, and a 
cold rain set in. He was without covering of 
any kind. But he was used to hardships, and 
he said his prayers and calmly lay down to sleep. 

Another day of bewildered wandering followed, 
and another night of discomfort. On the next 

140 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

day he came upon a little brook. The happy- 
thought came to him that, if he should follow 
this, it would lead him to the river, near which 
the hunters were encamped. This he did, and 
when he came in sight of the river, with a lighter 
heart he kindled his fire, cooked his supper, and 
bivouacked once more. The next day he easily 
made his way down the river to the camp, where 
there was great joy at his coming. The Indians 
had searched for him far and wide. From that 
day forth they never let him go into the forest 
alone. 

The scene of this adventure seems to have 
been somewhere to the north or north-east of the 
site of Kingston, Ontario. The Indians en- 
camped here several weeks, during which they 
killed a hundred and twenty deer. When the 
hard cold came and the marshy country was solid 
with ice, they resumed their journey, with their 
sledges laden with venison. Champlain went on 
with them from village to village, until he reached 
the one in which he had left Brother Le Caron. 
When spring came, the Frenchmen traveled 
homeward by the same circuitous route by which 
they had come, by the way of Lake Huron and 
the Ottawa River. 

141 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Champlain's arrival at Quebec caused universal 
rejoicing. He was welcomed as one risen from 
the grave, for the Indians had reported him dead, 
and a solemn service of thanksgiving for his 
safety was held. 

Here closes the most adventurous period of 
his career. Though his heart was in the work 
of exploration, he was destined to spend his re- 
maining years chiefly in nursing the feeble little 
colony at Quebec. He had not only to hold the 
balance even between monks and traders, but to 
guard the puny little colony against frequent 
Indian outbreaks. 

Eighteen years had passed since the foundation 
of Quebec, and still the population consisted of 
only one hundred and five persons, men, women, 
and children. Only two or three families sup- 
ported themselves from the soil. All the rest 
were there either as priests or as soldiers or as 
traders bent on enriching themselves as quickly 
as possible and then returning to France. This 
was one of the greatest difficulties that Champlain 
had to contend with. The French at this time 
had little thought of anything else than develop- 
ing a great trade, whereas the English colonists, 
with strong good sense, set themselves to tilling 

142 



SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 

the soil and to making true homes for themselves 
and their children's children. The result was 
that Canada long remained a sickly infant, while 
the English colonies were growing sturdily. 

An event that must have deeply tried Cham- 
plain was the surrender of Quebec by his govern- 
ment to the English. He actually spent some 
time in London as a prisoner, being treated with 
great consideration. Eventually, however, Que- 
bec was restored to its former masters and Cham- 
plain to the governorship. 

Thus were spent the last years of his life. He 
died on Christmas day, in 1635. ^^ ^'^^ funeral 
all the little community, Jesuits, officers, soldiers, 
traders, and settlers, gathered to pay honor to the 
dead " Father of New France." 

He was a great soul, his faults chiefly those of 
a too confiding nature, always manly and sincere, 
a brave soldier and a true gentleman, unselfishly 
devoted to the work to which he had consecrated 
his life, and on the rude frontiers of the New 
World living in a spirit worthy of the best ages 
of chivalry. 

The Father of New France is worthily com- 
memorated by a noble monument erected in 1898 
and unveiled in the presence of distinguished 

143 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

representatives of Canada, Great Britain, France, 
and the United States. It stands within the area 
once covered by Champlain's fort and presents 
the hero holding in his hand the King's open 
commission, while with bared head he salutes the 
child of his hopes. New France. 



144 



Chapter X 

JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 



chapter X 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

Unselfishness of the Better Class of Jesuits. — Their Achieve- 
ments in Exploration. — The Great Political Scheme of 
which they were the Instruments. — Indian Superstitions. — 
Danger ! — The Touching Story of Isaac Jogues. — Ferocity 
of the Five Nations. — Ruin of the Hurons and of the 
Jesuit Missions among them. 

A CLASS of men whose aims were singu- 
larly unselfish were the missionaries of 
the Roman Catholic Church, mostly 
Jesuits, that is, members of the Society 
of Jesus. The first object of the best of them 
was to convert the Indians and establish a great 
branch of the Catholic Church in the wilds of 
America. There were others, however, whose 
first aim was to increase the power of France. 
These politician-priests were well represented by 
the famous Father AUouez who, while he preached 
the gospel to the Indians, took still greater pains 
to preach the glory of the French King, whose 
subjects he wished to make them. On one occa- 
sion, supported by a French officer and his sol- 

147 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

diers, drawn up under arms, he thus addressed 
a large assemblage of Indians gathered at Sault 
Ste. Marie: 

" When our King attacks his enemies, he is 
more terrible than the thunder : the earth trem- 
bles ; the air and the sea are all on fire with the 
blaze of his cannon ; he is seen in the midst of 
his warriors, covered over with the blood of his 
enemies, whom he kills in such numbers that he 
does not count them by the scalps, but by the 
streams of blood which he causes to flow. In 
each city he has storehouses where there are 
hatchets enough to cut down all your forests, 
kettles enough to cook all your moose, and beds 
enough to fill all your lodges. His house is 
higher than the tallest of your trees and holds 
more families than the largest of your towns. 
Men come from every quarter of the earth to 
listen to and admire him. All that is done in 
the world is decided by him alone." 

But we are not now concerned with such 
scheming priests. We wish to sketch very briefly 
the story of some of those faithful and single- 
hearted men who were true missionaries of reli- 
gion. In their journeys into the wilds they 
often proved themselves pathfinders, penetrating 

148 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

regions never before trodden by the foot of a 
white man. Many a tribe got its first impression 
of our race from these peaceful preachers. A 
mission priest, Le Caron, was the first white man 
who saw Lake Huron. Another, the heroic 
Jogues, was the first of our race to see Lake 
George. Thus the work of Catholic mission- 
aries must have a large place in any truthful 
account of early New France. In fact, the his- 
tory of Canada is for a long time the history of 
Jesuit activity. 

These men were in the habit of sending 
to their superiors in the Old World copious ac- 
counts of all that they saw or did. These reports, 
which are known as the "Jesuit Relations," form 
a perfect storehouse of information about early 
Canadian afi^airs and about the Indians with 
whom the French were in contact. 

These Jesuit priests commonly were highly 
educated men, accustomed to all the refinements 
of Hfe — some of them of noble families — and 
we can only measure their devotion to the cause 
of religion when we realize the contrast between 
their native surroundings and the repulsive sav- 
agery into which they plunged when they went 
among the Indians. Think of such a man as 

149 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Father Le Jeune, cultivated and high-minded, 
exiling himself from his white brethren for a 
whole season, which he spent with a band of Al- 
gonquins, roaming the wintry forests with them, 
sharing their hunger and cold and filth, some- 
times on the verge of perishing from sheer 
starvation, at other times, when game chanced to 
be plentiful, revolted by the gorging of his com- 
panions, at all times disgusted by their nastiness. 
" I told them again and again," he writes, " that if 
dogs and swine could talk, they would use just such 
speech ; " a remark which shows, by the way, that 
the good friar did not think so highly of dumb 
animals as we do in these more enlightened days. 
But he had abundant charity, and he noted 
that underneath all this coarse rudeness there was 
genuine fellowship among these savages ; that 
they cheerfully helped one another, and when 
food was scarce, fairly distributed the smallest 
portion among all. Such observations helped 
him to endure his lot with serenity, even when 
he was himself made the butt of the coarsest 
jokes. He survived his hard experiences and, 
after five months of roaming, exhausted and worn 
to a shadow, rejoined the brethren in the rude 
convent at Quebec. 

150 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

There was much of this fine spirit about the 
best of the Jesuits. But, besides this individual 
devotion, there was another important circum- 
stance : they were only private soldiers in a great 
army. They had no will of their own, for one 
of the first principles of the Order was absolute 
obedience. Wherever their superiors might send 
them they must go without a question. What- 
ever they might be ordered to do, they must do 
it without a murmur. 

It became the policy of the leading men of the 
Order in Canada to establish missionary posts 
among the Hurons who, living in fixed habita- 
tions, were more hopeful subjects than the roving 
Algonquins of the St. Lawrence region. It would 
be a great gain, they reasoned, if these people 
could be brought within the pale of the Church. 
At the same time that so many souls would be 
saved from everlasting flames, the immensely 
lucrative fur-trade of a vast region would be 
secured to the French, and the King would gain 
thousands of dusky subjects. Canada would 
flourish, the fur-traders would grow richer than 
ever, and France would be in the way of extend- 
ing her rule ever further and further over the 
western forests and waters — all through the 

151 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

exertions of a few faithful and single-hearted men 
who went to preach religion. 

The three men chosen for the work among 
the Hurons were Fathers Brebeuf, Daniel, and 
Davost. On their journey to their post, if they 
could have followed a direct line, they would 
have gone up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, 
traversed the length of the lake, and then by a 
short overland journey reached their destination. 
But this route would have exposed them to the 
ferocious Iroquois, whose country bordered Lake 
Ontario on the south. Therefore, it was neces- 
sary to take the long and circuitous canoe-voyage 
which Champlain had taken fifteen years earlier 
{See map). 

At last, after many pains and perils, half-dead 
with hunger and fatigue, they reached a village of 
the Huron country. Soon they settled down to 
the routine of their daily life, of which they have 
left us a very readable account. Every day they 
had numerous visitors, some from long distances, 
who came to gaze in silent wonder at their 
domestic arrangements. For instance, there was 
the clock. They squatted on the floor for hours, 
watching it and waiting to hear it strike. They 
thought it was alive and asked what it ate. 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

They; listened in awe when it struck, sure that 
they heard the voice of a living being. "The 
Captain " they called it. 

Sometimes one of the French soldiers who ac- 
companied the Jesuits, when " the Captain " had 
sounded his last stroke, would cry out, " Stop ! " 
Its immediate silence proved that it heard and 
obeyed. 

" What does the Captain say ? " the Indians 
sometimes asked. 

" When he strikes twelve times, he says, * Hang 
on the kettle,' and when he strikes four times, he 
says, * Get up and go home.' " 

This was a particularly happy thought ; at the 
stroke of four their visitors would invariably rise 
and take themselves off. 

In spite of the lack of outward signs of suc- 
cess, the good men were making a conquest of 
the savage people's hearts. Their unwearied 
patience, their kindness, the innocence of their 
lives, and the tact with which they avoided 
every occasion of ill-will, did not fail to gain, 
the confidence of those whom they sought to 
win, and chiefs of distant villages came to urge 
that they would take up their abode with them. 
Soon the Huron country contained no less than 

153 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

six different points where faithful priests preached 
the gospel. 

The Fathers had abundant opportunities of 
observing the habits of the natives. They have 
left a most interesting description of the great 
Feast of the Dead, which was held at intervals 
of ten or twelve years, and the object of which 
was to gather into one great burying-place all 
the dead of the tribe, these being removed from 
their temporary resting-places on scaffolds and 
in graves. It was believed that the souls of the 
dead remained with their bodies until the great 
common burial, then they would depart to the 
spirit-world.^ 

This practice, of a great common burial, ex- 
plains the occurrence, in various parts of the 
country once occupied by the Hurons, of pits 

^ The faith of the Indians in a future life was very sincere and 
strong. Jonathan Carver tells a touching story of a couple whom 
he knew who lost a little son of about four years. They seemed 
inconsolable. After a time the father died. Then the mother 
dried her tears and ceased her lamentations. When he asked her 
the reason of this, as it seemed to him, strange conduct, she an- 
swered that she and her husband had grieved excessively, because 
they knew that their little boy would be alone in the other world, 
without anybody to provide for his wants, but now, his father hav- 
ing gone to join him, her mind was at rest in the assurance that the 
little fellow would be well cared for and happy. 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

containing the remains of many hundreds of per- 
sons all mixed together promiscuously, together 
with belts of wampum, copper ornaments, glass 
beads, and other articles. One of these deposits 
is said to have contained the remains of several 
thousand persons.-^ 

The story of Isaac Jogues Is a good example 
both of the Jesuit missionaries' sufferings and of 
their fortitude. He had gone to Quebec for sup- 
plies and was returning to the Huron country 
with two young Frenchmen, Goupil and Couture, 
and a number of Hurons. Suddenly the war- 
whoop rang In their ears, and a fleet of Iro- 
quois canoes bore down upon them from adjacent 
islands, with a terrific discharge of musketry. 
The Hurons for the greater part leaped ashore 
and fled. Jogues sprang into the bulrushes and 
could have got away. When he saw some of the 
converted Indians in the hands of their enemies, 
he determined to share their fate, came out from 
his hiding-place, and gave himself up. Goupil 

1 This usage seems to have been quite general. Jonathan Car- 
ver, in 1767, tells of a common burying-place of several bands of 
the Sioux, to which these roving people carefully brought their dead 
at a given time, depositing them with great solemnity. These 
bodies had previously been temporarily placed on rude scaffolds on 
the limbs of trees, awaiting the general interment. 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

was taken prisoner. Couture had got away, but the 
thought of the fate that probably awaited Jogues 
decided him to go back and cast in his lot with 
him. In the affray, however, he had killed an 
Iroquois. In revenge, the others fell upon him 
furiously, stripped off all his clothing, tore away 
his finger-nails with their teeth, gnawed his fingers, 
and thrust a sword through one of his hands. 
Jogues broke from his guards, ran to his friend, 
and threw his arms about his neck. This so in- 
censed the Iroquois that they turned upon him, 
beat him with their fists and war-clubs till he was 
senseless, and gnawed his fingers as they had 
done Couture's. Goupil next received the same 
ferocious treatment. 

The victorious Iroquois now started off with 
their captives for their country. Their route lay 
up the river Richelieu, through the length of Lake 
Champlain, and through the greater part of Lake 
George to a point where they were wont to leave 
it and cross over to the Hudson. There was 
picturesque scenery by the way. But what charm 
had the beauties of Lake Champlain and distant 
glimpses of the Adirondacks for the poor prisoners, 
harassed by the pain and fever of their wounds, 
in the day cruelly beaten by their captors and at 

156 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

night so tormented by clouds of mosquitoes that 
they could not sleep ? In time they passed the 
sites of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, sighted 
romantic Lake George, which these three lonely 
white men were the first of their race to see, and 
landed from their canoes at the place where after- 
ward rose Fort WiUiam Henry, the scene of one 
of the most shocking tragedies of the Colonial 
Wars. 

Thirteen dreadful days the journey occupied, 
from the St. Lawrence to Its termination at a 
palisaded town on the banks of the Mohawk. 
On Lake Champlain they had met a war-party of 
Iroquois, and the prisoners, for their delight, had 
been compelled to run the gauntlet between a 
double line of braves armed with clubs and thorny 
sticks. When Jogues fell drenched in blood and 
half-dead, he was recalled to consciousness by fire 
applied to his body. Couture's experience illus- 
trates a singular trait of the ferocious Iroquois. 
There was nothing that they admired so much as 
bulldog courage ; and though he had exasperated 
them by killing one of their warriors, they punished 
him only by subjecting him to excruciating tortures. 
His fortitude under these still further increased 
their admiration and they ended by adopting hini 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

into the tribe. Many years later we read of him 
still living among the Mohawks. Jogues and 
Goupil they dragged from town to town, in each 
place exposing them on a scaffold and subjecting 
them to atrocities contrived to cause the utmost 
suffering without endangering life. Yet, in an in- 
terval between tortures, Jogues seized an oppor- 
tunity to baptize some Huron prisoners with a 
few rain-drops gathered from the husks of an ear 
of green corn thrown to him for food. 

Three of the Hurons were burned to death, 
and the two Frenchmen expected the same fate. 
Goupil did indeed meet with his death, but in a 
different way. He was once seen to make the 
sign of the cross on the forehead of a grandchild 
of the Indian in whose lodge he lived. The old 
man's superstition was aroused, having been told 
by the Dutch that the sign of the cross came from 
the Devil. So he imagined that Goupil had be- 
witched the child. 

The next morning, as the two Frenchmen were 
walking together, talking of the glory of suffering 
for the sake of Christ, they met two young Indians, 
one of whom buried his hatchet in Goupil's head. 
Jogues gave absolution to his dying friend and 
then, kneeling calmly, bowed his neck to the blow 

158 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

which he expected. Instead, he was ordered to 
get up and go home. 

For a time his life hung on a thread. He would 
have welcomed death. But the very indifference 
to it which he showed was probably the reason 
why the Iroquois spared him. Now he led an 
existence of horrible drudgery. After a while, as 
he showed no disposition to escape, he was allowed 
to come and go as he pleased. So he went from 
town to town, teaching and baptizing whenever he 
could get a chance. The gangs of prisoners whom 
the Iroquois brought home from the Huron 
country, and whom they almost invariably burned, 
furnished him an abundance of subjects to work on. 

Once it happened that he went with a party 
of Indians to a fishing-place on the Hudson. 
Thence some of them went up the river to Fort 
Orange, a miserable structure of logs, standing 
within the limits of the present city of Albany. 
The Dutch settlers there had heard of Jogues's 
captivity and, strenuous Protestants though they 
were, had striven to secure his release by offering 
goods to a large value. Now that he was among 
them, they urged him not to return to his captors, 
but to make his escape, since his death was certain, 
if he went back. They offered to smuggle him 

159 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

on board a vessel that lay in the river and pay his 
way to France. He resolved to seize the tempt- 
ing opportunity. 

It would make our story too long if we should 
tell at length the narrow escapes that he still ex- 
perienced before he succeeded in getting away. 
At his first attempt to slip away at night, he was 
severely bitten by a savage dog belonging to the 
Dutch farmer with whom he and the- Indians 
lodged. When he got off he lay two days hidden 
in the hold of the vessel that was to carry him 
away. Then the Indians came out and so 
frightened its officers that he was sent ashore and 
put under the care of a miserly old fellow who ate 
the most of the food that was provided for Jogues. 
While he was hidden in this man's garret he was 
within a few feet of Indians who came there to 
trade. Finally the Dutch satisfied the Indians 
by paying a large ransom and shipped Jogues 
down the river. He received nothing but kind- 
ness from the Dutch everywhere and, on his ar- 
rival at Manhattan (New York), was furnished by 
the Governor with a suit of clothes, instead of his 
tattered skins, and given a passage to Europe. 

At last he landed on the coast of Brittany. In 
due time he reached Paris, and the city was stirred 

1 60 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

with the tale of his sufferings and adventures. 
He was summoned to court, and the ladies 
thronged about him to do him reverence, while 
the Queen kissed his mutilated hands. 

Would not one think that Jogues had had 
enough of the New World, with its deadly perils 
and cruel pains ? But so it was not. His simple 
nature cared nothing for honors. His heart was 
over the water, among the savages whom he 
longed to save. Besides, he was only a private 
soldier in that great army, the Jesuit brother- 
hood, of which every member was sworn to act, 
to think, to live, for but one object, the advance- 
ment of religion as it was represented by the 
Order. And who was so fit for the work among 
the Indians as Jogues, who knew their language 
and customs ? 

So, in the following spring we find him again 
on the Atlantic, bound for Canada. Two years 
he passed in peaceful labors at Montreal. Then 
his supreme trial came. Peace had been made 
between the French and the Mohawks, and 
Couture still lived among the latter, for the ex- 
press purpose of holding them steadfast to their 
promises. But, for some reason, the French ap- 
prehended an outbreak of hostilities, and it was 
II i6i 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

resolved to send envoys to the Indian country. 
At the first mention of the subject to Jogues he 
shrank from returning to the scene of so much 
suffering. But the habit of implicit obedience 
triumphed, and he quickly announced his wiUing- 
ness to do the will of his superiors, which to him 
was the will of God. " I shall go, but I shall 
never return," he wrote to a friend. 

He started out with a small party carrying a 
load of gifts intended to conciliate the Iroquois, 
and followed the route that was associated in his 
mind with so much misery, up the Richelieu and 
Lake Champlain and through Lake George. At 
the head of this water they crossed over to the 
Hudson, borrowed canoes from some Indians 
fishing there, and dropped down the river to 
Fort Orange. Once more Jogues was among 
his Dutch friends. Glad as they were to see him, 
they wondered at his venturing back among the 
people who had once hunted him like a noxious 
beast. From Fort Orange he ascended the Mo- 
hawk River to the first Indian town. With 
what wonder the savages must have gazed at the 
man who had lived among them as a despised 
slave, and now had come back laden with gifts as 
the ambassador of a great power ! They received 

162 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS 

him graciously, and when his errand was done, 
he returned safe to Quebec. 

It would have been well for him if his supe- 
riors had contented themselves with what he had 
already done and suffered. But they had a 
grand scheme of founding a mission among the 
Iroquois. They knew its perils and called it 
"The Mission of Martyrs." To this post of 
danger Jogues was sent. The devoted man went 
without a murmur. On the way he met Indians 
who warned him of danger, and his Huron com- 
panions turned back, but he went on. Arrived 
among the Mohawks, he found a strong tide of 
feeling running against him. The accident that 
aroused it illustrates Indian superstitiousness. On 
his former visit, expecting to return, he had left a 
small box. From the first the Indians suspected 
it of being, like Pandora's box in the old mythol- 
ogy, full of all kinds of ills. But Jogues opened 
it and showed them that it contained only some 
harmless personal effects. After he was gone, 
however, some Huron prisoners wrought on their 
terror and at the same time reviled the French, 
declaring that the latter had almost ruined the 
Huron nation by their witchcraft and had brought 
on it drought, plague, pestilence, and famine. 

163 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

The Iroquois were well-nigh wild with rage 
and fright. At any moment the small-pox or 
some other horror might step out of the little 
box and stalk abroad among them. The three 
clans that made up the tribe were divided. The 
clans of the Wolf and the Tortoise were for 
keeping the peace ; but the clan of the Bear was 
for making war on the French. Just then, by- 
ill fortune, Jogues, approaching the Mohawk vil- 
lages, encountered a band of Bear warriors. 
They seized and dragged him to their town. 
Here he was savagely attacked and beaten with 
fists and clubs. In vain he reminded them that 
he had come on an errand of peace. They tor- 
tured him cruelly. The Wolf and Tortoise 
clans protested against this violation of the peace, 
but the others carried everything before them. 

The next day Jogues was bidden to a feast. 
He did not dare refuse to go. As he entered 
the lodge of the Bear chief, in spite of the efforts 
of an Indian who exposed his own life in trying 
to save him, a hatchet was buried in his brain. 
Thus died a singularly pure and unselfish man, a 
Pathfinder, too, for he was one of the three 
white men who first saw Lake George. 

Shortly after the death of Jogues, war broke 
164 



JESUIT MISSIONARY PIONEERS - 

out again. Nothing could have exceeded the fe- 
rocity of the Five Nations. They boasted that 
they intended to sweep the French and their In- 
dian friends off the face of the earth. No place 
seemed too remote for them. At the most unex- 
pected moments of the day or the night they 
rose, as it seemed, out of the earth, and, with 
their blood-curdling war-whoop, fell upon their 
intended victims with guns and tomahawks. The 
poor Algonquins were in a state of pitiable terror. 
Nowhere were they safe. Even when they re- 
tired into the wilderness north of the St. Law- 
rence, they were tracked by their ruthless foes, 
slaughtered, burned, and drowned. 

We might go on and tell the story of other 
priests who all fell at the post of duty and died 
worthily. But of what use would it be to pro- 
long these horrors ? Enough to say that the 
Huron nation was almost annihilated, the feeble 
remnant left their country and went elsewhere, 
and the once promising work of the Jesuits 
among them ended in fire and blood. 

A small party of the Hurons accompanied the 
returning priests to the French settlements and 
became established, under French protection, near 
Quebec, at a place called New Lorette, or Indian 

165 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Lorette, and fought by the side of their white 
friends in later wars. There, to this day, their 
descendants, mostly French half-breeds, may be 
seen engaged in the harmless occupations of 
weaving baskets and making moccasins. An- 
other band wandered away to the far Northwest, 
came into conflict with the warlike and powerful 
Sioux, and, driven back eastward, finally took up 
its abode near the sites of Detroit and Sandusky. 
Under the name of Wyandots, its descendants 
played a conspicuous part in our border wars. 



i66 



chapter XI 



JEAN NICOLLET, LOUIS JOLIET, AND FATHER 
JACQUES MARQUETTE 

THE DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



Chapter XI 



JEAN NICOLLET, LOUIS JOLIET, AND FATHER 
JACQUES MARQUETTE 

THE DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

Jean Nicollet's Voyage on the Wisconsin. — Louis Joliet and 
Jacques Marquette are sent by Count Frontenac to follow 
the Course of the Mississippi. — On the Wisconsin. — The 
" Great Water " reached. — Hospitably entertained in an 
Indian Camp. — An Invaluable Gift. — The Mouth of the 
Missouri and the Mouth of the Ohio passed. — The Outlet of 
the Arkansas reached. — Hardships of the Return Voyage. 
— Death of Marquette. — Joliet's Mishap. 

A NOTABLE coureur de Ms (a. French- 
Canadian wood-ranger) was Jean Ni- 
collet. He had lived for years 
among the savages and had become 
thoroughly Indian in his habits. He was sent by 
the French Governor, about 1638, as an ambas- 
sador to the Winnebagoes, west of Lake Michi- 
gan. He had heard among his Indian friends of 
a strange people without hair or beard who came 
from beyond the Great Water to trade with the 
Indians on the Lakes. Who could these beard- 
less men be but Chinese or Japanese ? 

169 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

So fully possessed was he by this idea that, in 
order to make a suitable appearance before the 
Orientals whom he expected to meet, he took 
along with him a robe of heavy Chinese silk, 
embroidered with birds and flowers. When he 
neared the Winnebago town, he sent a messenger 
ahead to announce his coming, and, having put 
on his gorgeous robe, followed him on the scene. 
Never did a circus, making its grand entry into a 
village in all the glory of gilded chariots and 
brass band, inspire deeper awe than this primitive 
ambassador, with his flaming robe and a pair of 
pistols which he fired continually. His pale face, 
the first that the Winnebagoes had ever seen, 
gave them a sense of something unearthly. The 
squaws and the children fled into the woods, 
shrieking that it was a manitou (spirit) armed 
with thunder and hghtning. The warriors, how- 
ever, stood their ground bravely and entertained 
him with a feast of one hundred and twenty 
beaver.^ 

But if Nicollet did not succeed in opening re- 
lations with Cathay and Cipango (China and 

1 These Winnebagoes were the most eastern branch of the great 
Dakota-Sioux family. Their ancestors were the builders, it is be- 
lieved, of the Wisconsin mounds. 

170 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

Japan), he did something else that entitles him to 
be commemorated among the Pathfinders. He 
ascended Fox River to its head-waters, crossed the 
little divide that separates the waters flowing into 
the Lakes from those that empty into the Gulf of 
Mexico, and launched his canoe on the Wiscon- 
sin, the first white man, so far as we know, who 
floated on one of the upper tributaries of the 
mighty river. This was just about one hundred 
years after Soto had crossed it in its lower course. 
On his return, he reported that he had followed 
the river until he came within three days of the 
sea. Undoubtedly he misunderstood his Indian 
guides. . The " Great Water " of which they 
spoke was almost certainly the Mississippi, for 
that is what the name means. 

The first undoubted exploration of the mighty 
river took place thirty-five years later. It was 
made by two men who combined the two aspects 
of Jesuit activity, the spiritual and the worldly. 
Louis Joliet was born in Canada, of French 
parents. He was educated by the Jesuits, and 
was all his life devoted to them. He was an 
intelligent merchant, practical and courageous. 
No better man could have been chosen for the 
work assigned him. 

171 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

His companion in this undertaking was a 
Jesuit priest, Jacques Marquette, who was a fine 
example of the noblest qualities ever exhibited 
by his order. He was settled as a missionary 
at Michillimackinac, on Mackinaw Strait, when 
Joliet came to him from Quebec with orders 
from Count Frontenac to go with him to seek 
and explore the Mississippi. 

On May 17, 1673, in very simple fashion, 
in two birch-bark canoes, with five white voy- 
ageurs and a moderate supply of smoked meat 
and Indian corn, the two travelers set out to solve 
a perplexing problem, by tracing the course of the 
great river. Their only guide was a crude map 
based on scraps of information which they had 
gathered. Besides Marquette's journal, by a 
happy chance we have that of Jonathan Carver, 
who traveled over the same route nearly a hun- 
dred years later. From him we get much useful 
and interesting information. 

At the first, the explorers' course lay westward, 
along the northern shore of Lake Michigan and 
into Green Bay. The Menomonie, or Wild-rice 
Indians, one of the western branches of the Al- 
gonquin family, wished to dissuade them from 
going further. They told of ferocious tribes, 

172 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

who would put them to death without provoca- 
tion, and of frightful monsters (alligators) which 
would devour them and their canoes. The voy- 
agers thanked them and pushed on, up Fox 
River and across Lake Winnebago. 

At the approach to the lake are the Winnebago 
Rapids, which necessitate a portage, or " carry." 
Our voyagers do not mention having any trouble 
here. But, at a later time, according to a tradi- 
tion related by Dr. R. G. Thwaites, this was the 
scene of a tragic affair. When the growing fur- 
trade made this route very important, the Fox 
Indians living here made a good thing out of 
carrying goods over the trail and helping the 
empty boats over the rapids. They eventually 
became obnoxious by taking toll from passing 
traders. Thereupon the Governor of New France 
sent a certain Captain Marin to chastise them. 
He came up the Fox River with a large party of 
voyageurs and half-breeds on snow-shoes, sur- 
prised the natives in their village, and slaughtered 
them by hundreds. 

At another time the same man led a summer 
expedition against the Foxes. He kept his armed 
men lying down in the boats and covered with 
oilcloth like goods. Hundreds of red-skins 

173 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

were squatting on the beach, awaiting the coming 
of the flotilla. The canoes ranged up along the 
shore. Then, at a signal, the coverings were 
thrown oflF, and a rain of bullets was poured into 
the defenceless savages, while a swivel-gun mowed 
down the victims of this brutality. Hundreds 
were slaughtered, it is said. 

On to the lower Fox River their course led 
the explorers. This brought them into the 
country of the Miamis, the Mascoutins, once a 
powerful tribe, now extinct, and the Kickapoos, 
all Algonquins of the West. 

A council was held, and the Indians readily 
granted their request for guides to show them the 
way to the Wisconsin. Through the tortuous 
and blind course of the little river, among lakes 
and marshes, they would have had great difficulty 
in making their way unaided.^ 

When they came to the portage, where now 
stands the city of Portage,^ with its short canal 

1 Carver says, " It is with difficulty that canoes can pass through 
the obstructions they meet with from the rice-stalks. This river is 
the greatest resort for wild fowl that I met with in the whole course 
of my travels ; frequently the sun would be obscured by them for 
some minutes together." 

** This spot has a remarkable interest as the place where, within 
a very short distance, rise the waters that flow away to the eastward. 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

connecting the two rivers, they carried their 
canoes across, and launched their little barks on 
the Wisconsin. Down this river they would 
float to the great mysterious stream that would 
carry them they knew not whither, perhaps to 
the Sea of Virginia (the Atlantic), perhaps to the 
Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the Vermilion Sea 
(the Gulf of California). 

Whether they would ever return from the dim, 
undiscovered country into which they were ven- 
turing, who could say ? It seems amazing that 
one hundred and thirty years after Soto had 
crossed the great river, intelligent Frenchmen 
were ignorant even of its outlet. It shows how 
successfully Spain had suppressed knowledge of 
the territory which she claimed. 

Down the quiet waters of the Wisconsin the 
voyagers glided, passing the thrifty villages of 
the Sacs and Foxes, then a powerful people, now 
almost extinct. On June 17, exactly one month 
from the day of their starting, their canoes 

through the Great Lakes, into the North Atlantic, and those that 
flow southward to the Mississippi and the Gulf. It is, however, 
according to Carver, most uninviting in appearance, " a morass 
overgrown with a kind of long grass, the rest of it a plain, with 
some few oak and pine trees growing thereon. I observed here," 
he says, "a great number of rattlesnakes." 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

shot out into a rapid current, here a mile wide, 
and with joy beyond expression, as Marquette 
writes, they knew that they had achieved the 
first part of their undertaking. They had 
reached the " Great Water." 

What would have been the feelings of these 
unassuming voyagers, if they could have looked 
down the dim vista of time, and have seen the 
people of a great and prosperous commonwealth 
(Wisconsin), on June 17, 1873, celebrating the 
two hundredth anniversary of their achievement ! 

Strange sights unfolded themselves, as they 
made their way down the mighty stream and 
looked on shores that no eyes of a white man 
had ever beheld. What magnificent solitudes 1 
Only think of it — more than a fortnight with- 
out seeing a human being ! 

They used always extreme caution, as well they 
might, in view of the tales that had been told 
them of ferocious savages roaming that region. 
They went ashore in the evening, cooked and 
ate their supper, and then pushed out and an- 
chored in the stream, keeping a man on watch 
till morning. 

After more than two weeks of this solitary 
voyaging, one day they saw a well-trodden path 

176 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

that led to the adjacent prairie. Joliet and Mar- 
quette determined to follow it, leaving the canoes 
in charge of their men. After a walk of some 
miles inland, they came to an Indian village, 
with two others in sight. They advanced with 
beating hearts. What was their reception to be ? 
When they were near enough to hear voices in 
the wigwams, they stood out in the open and 
shouted to attract attention. A great commo- 
tion ensued, and the inmates swarmed out. Then, 
to their intense relief, four chiefs advanced delib- 
erately, holding aloft two calumets, or peace-pipes. 
They wore French cloth, from which it was evi- 
dent that they traded with the French. These 
people proved to belong to the great Illinois 
tribe, the very people some of whom had met 
Marquette at his mission-station and had begged 
him, as he says, " to bring them the word of 
God." 

Now, after the pipe of peace had been duly 
smoked, he had the long-desired opportunity of 
delivering the message of salvation. He did not 
fail to add some words about the power and glory 
of Onontio (Count Frontenac). The head chief 
replied in a flowery speech, after the most ap- 
proved fashion of Indian oratory, assuring his 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

guests that their presence made his tobacco sweeter, 
the river calmer, the sky more serene, and the 
earth more beautiful. He further showed his 
friendship by giving them a boy as a slave and, 
best of all, a calumet, or peace-pipe,^ which 
was to serve as a commendation to the good- 
will of other Indians. Invaluable the voyagers 
found it. 

The friendly chief also represented very 
strongly the danger of going further down the 

^ The following description of this very important article is 
taken from Father Hennepin : 

<' This Calumet is the most mysterious Thing in the World 
among the Savages of the Continent of the Northern America : for 
it is used in all their most important Transactions. However, it is 
nothing else but a large Tobacco-pipe made of Red, Black, or 
White Marble : The Head is finely polished, and the Quill, which 
is commonly two Foot and a half long, is made of a pretty strong 
Reed, or Cane, adorned with Feathers of all Colours, interlaced 
with Locks of Women's Hair. They tie to it two wings of the 
most curious Birds they find, which makes their Calumet not un- 
like Mercury's Wand. 

" A Pipe, such as I have described it, is a Pass and Safe Con- 
duct amongst all the Allies of the Nation who has given it ; for the 
Savages are generally persuaded that a great Misfortune would be- 
fal 'em, if they violated the Publick Faith of the Calumet." 

The French never wearied of extolling the wonderful influence 
of this symbol of brotherhood. Says Father Gravier, writing of his 
voyage down the Mississippi, in 1700 : "No such honor is paid 
to the crowns and sceptres of kings as they pay to it. It seems to 
be the God of peace and war, the arbiter of life and death." 

178 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

Great Water and vainly tried to dissuade them. 
Feasting followed. After various courses, a 
dainty dish of boiled dog was served, then one of 
fat buffalo, much to the Frenchmen's relief. 
Throughout this entertainment the master of 
ceremonies fed the guests as if they had been in- 
fants, removing fish-bones with his fingers and 
blowing on hot morsels to cool them, before put- 
ting them into their mouths. This was the very 
pink of Indian courtesy. 

The two Frenchmen spent the night with their 
dusky friends and the next day were escorted to 
their canoes by several hundreds of them. This 
first encounter with Indians of the Mississippi 
Valley on their own soil seems to have taken 
place not far from the site of Keokuk. 

The voyagers' next sensation was experienced 
after passing the mouth of the Illinois River. Im- 
mediately above the site of the city of Alton, the 
flat face of a high rock was painted, in the highest 
style of Indian art, with representations of two 
horrible monsters, to which the natives were wont 
to make sacrifices as they passed on the river. 
The sight of them caused in the pious Frenchmen 
a feeling that they were in the Devil's country, for 
to Christians of the seventeenth century heathen 

179 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

gods were not mere creatures of the imagination, 
but living beings, demons, high captains in Sa- 
tan's great army. 

Soon the voyagers were made to fear for their 
safety by a mighty torrent of yellow mud surging 
athwart the blue current of the Mississippi, sweep- 
ing down logs and uprooting trees, and dashing 
their light canoes like leaves on an angry brook. 
They were passing the mouth of the Missouri. 
A few days later they crossed the outlet of the 
Ohio, " Beautiful River," as the Iroquois name 
means. 

All the time it was growing hotter. The pic- 
turesque shores of the upper river had given place 
to dense canebrakes, and swarms of mosquitoes 
pestered them day and night. Now they had a 
note of danger in meeting some Indians who evi- 
dently were in communication with Europeans, 
for they had guns and carried their powder in 
small bottles of thick glass. These Europeans 
could be none other than the Spaniards to the 
southward, of whom it behooved the Frenchmen 
to beware, if they did not wish to pull an oar in a 
galley or swing a pick in a silver-mine. Still there 
was a satisfaction in the thought that, having left 
one civilization thousands of miles behind them, 

1 80 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

they had passed through the wilderness to th^ 
edge of another. These Indians readily responded 
to the appeal of the Frenchmen's calumet, invited' 
them ashore, and feasted them. 

On toward the ocean, which they were falsely 
told was distant only ten days' journey, the 
voyagers sped, passing the point at which, one 
hundred and thirty-three years earlier, Soto, with 
the remnant of his army, had crossed the mighty 
river in whose bed his bones were destined to rest. 
Above the mouth of the Arkansas they were for 
a time in deadly peril from Indians. These were 
of the Mitchigamea tribe, who, with the Chicka- 
saws and others of the Muskoki family, fought 
the Spaniards so valiantly. Canoes were putting 
out above and below, to cut off the explorers' 
retreat, while some young warriors on the shore 
were hastily stringing their bows, all animated 
doubtless by bitter memories of white men in- 
herited from Soto's time. Once more the calu- 
met saved its bearers. Marquette all the while 
held it aloft, and some of the elders, responding 
to its silent appeal, succeeded in restraining the 
fiery young men. The strangers were invited 
ashore, feasted, as usual, and entertained over 
night. They had some misgivings, but did not 

i8i 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

dare refuse these hospitalities ; and no harm befell 
them. 

The next stage of their journey brought them 
to a village just opposite the mouth of the Arkan- 
sas River. Here they were received in great 
state by the Arkansas Indians, notice of their 
coming having been sent ahead by their new 
friends. There was the usual speechmaking, ac- 
companied by interminable feasting, in which a 
roasted dog held the place of honor. There was 
a young Indian who spoke Illinois well, and 
through him Marquette was able to preach, as 
well as to gain information about the river below. 
He was told that the shores were infested by 
fierce savages armed with guns. 

By this time it was evident that nothing was 
to be gained by going further. The explorers 
had ascertained beyond dispute that the Missis- 
sippi emptied its waters, not directly into the 
Atlantic, or into the Pacific, but into the Gulf of 
Mexico. If they went further, they ran the risk 
of being killed by Indians or falling into the 
hands of Spaniards. In either case the result of 
their discovery would be lost. Therefore they 
resolved to return to Canada. Just two months 
from their starting and one month from their 

182 



DISCOVERERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

discovery of the Great Water they began their 
return. 

Their route was a different one from the orig- 
inal, for on reaching the mouth of the Illinois 
River they entered and ascended it. On the 
way, they stopped at a famous village of the 
Illinois tribe called Kaskaskia. Thence they 
were guided by a band of young warriors through 
the route up the Des Plaines River and across 
the portage to Lake Michigan. Coasting its 
shore, they reached Green Bay, after an absence 
of four months. 

Thus ended a memorable voyage. The travel- 
ers had paddled their canoes more than two thou- 
sand, five hundred miles, had explored two of the 
three routes leading into the Mississippi, and had 
followed the Great Water itself to within seven 
hundred miles of the ocean. They had settled 
one of the knotty geographical points of their 
day, that of the river's outlet. All this they had 
done in hourly peril of their lives. Though they 
experienced no actual violence, there was no time 
at which they were not in danger. 

In the end the voyage cost Marquette his life, 
for its hardships and exposures planted in his 
system the germs of a disease from which he 

183 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

never fully recovered, and from which he died, 
two years later, on the shore of Lake Michigan. 
Joliet met with a peculiar misfortune. At the 
Lachine Rapids, just above Montreal, almost at 
the very end of his voyage of thousands of miles, 
his canoe was upset, two men and his little Indian 
boy were drowned, and his box of papers, includ- 
ing his precious journal, was lost. Undoubtedly 
his daily record of the voyage would have been 
very valuable, for he was a man of scholarship 
as well as of practical ability. But its accidental 
loss gave the greater fame to Marquette, whose 
account was printed. In recent years, however, 
he has been recognized as an equal partner with 
the noble priest in the great achievement. 



184 



Chapter XII 



PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON AND MEDARD 

CHOUART DISCOVER LAKE 

SUPERIOR 



Chapter XII 



PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON AND MEDARD 

CHOUART EXPLORE LAKE 

SUPERIOR 

Who were the Coureurs de bois. — Radisson's Experiences as 
a Prisoner among the Iroquois. — He plays the Indian War- 
rior, — Escapes to the Dutch. — Makes his Way back to 
Canada. — He and his Brother-in-law set out for the Upper 
Lakes. — Fight with Iroquois. — Storm an Indian Fort. — 
Reach Lake Superior. — " The Pictured Rocks." — Kewee- 
naw Point. — Long Overland Journey. — Summer and 
Feasting. — Winter and Famine. — Feasting again. — Fine 
Ducking. — Start for Home. — Reach Montreal with Great 
Fleet of Canoes. 

THE early history of New France owes 
its romantic interest to the activity of 
four classes of men. Daring explor- 
ers, such as Cartier, Champlain, Joliet, 
Marquette, La Salle, plunged into the wilderness, 
penetrated remote regions, made great discoveries, 
and extended French influence and French trade 
as far to the west as the Mississippi and to the 
northeast as far as Hudson Bay. French Cath- 
olic missionaries said mass and preached their 

187 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

faith in the heart of the forest primeval and at 
lonely posts on the shores of the Great Lakes. 
Able and brilliant Governors, such as Champlain 
and Frontenac, built forts at commanding points 
on the inland waters, and ruled, in a fashion, an 
area vastly greater than that of France itself 

Of these three classes of men and their achieve- 
ments we have had examples. We come now to 
speak of a fourth class who exercised a powerful 
influence on the destinies of New France. If 
we remember that the material object of French 
activity in America was furs^ we shall easily un- 
derstand that the men who were busied in the fur- 
trade were a very important part of the scanty 
population. They were of two kinds. There 
were merchants who " kept store " at Quebec, 
Montreal, Three Rivers, and other trading-posts, 
bartering their goods to the Indians for peltries. 
These were brought to them in large quantities 
in the early summer, when the ice had broken 
up, and fleets of canoes descended the St. Law- 
rence laden with skins. Then there was amazing 
stir at the sleepy little posts on the great river. 
Painted savages, howling and screeching, mostly 
half-drunk, swarmed about the stations, and at 
night the sky was red with the glare of their 

i88 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

fires. There was an enormous profit in the 
traffic, for the Indians had no idea of the cheap- 
ness of the goods which they took in exchange 
for their furs, nor of the high prices which these 
brought in Europe. It is no wonder that gov- 
ernors and other high officials were charged with 
having a secret interest in this very lucrative 
trade, and, for that reason, winking at violations 
of the King's orders regulating it. Even Jesuit 
missionaries sometimes were thought by their 
opponents to be more eager to share this money- 
making traffic than to win souls. 

But a more numerous class than these station- 
ary traders were the so-called coureurs de bois^ or 
wood-rangers. These were wild fellows whom 
the love of adventure lured Into the wilderness 
not less strongly than the love of gain. They 
roamed the forests, paddled the streams and lakes, 
hunted and trapped, trafficked with the Indians 
wherever and whenever they pleased, often in 
violation of express orders, and smuggled their 
forbidden furs into the trading-posts. Some- 
times they spent whole seasons, even years, among 
the savages, taking to wife red women. Lawless 
fellows as these were, they helped mightily to 
extend French influence and subdue the continent 

189 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

to the white man's rule. Daring explorers, they 
penetrated remote regions, hobnobbed with the 
natives, and brought back accounts of what they 
had seen. 

One of their leaders, Daniel Greysolon du 
Lhut, whose name is borne by the city pf Duluth, 
in Minnesota, was a conspicuous figure in the 
wild frontier life. He carried on a vast fur- trade, 
held his rough followers well in hand, led a small 
army of them in fighting the battles of his coun- 
try, and even appeared at the French court at 
Versailles. 

The half-breed children of these coureurs, 
growing up in Indian wigwams, but full of 
pride in their French blood, became a strong 
link binding together the two races in friendly 
alliance and deciding the Indians, in time of 
war, to paint themselves and put on their feathers 
for the French rather than for the English. 
Therefore any account of pioneer Frenchmen 
should include a sketch of the coureurs de hois. 

To illustrate this type, one is here taken as an 
example who was born in France, and who was 
a gentleman by birth and education, but whose 
insatiable love of adventure led him to take up the 
coureurs life, with all its vicissitudes. Withal, he 

190 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

was a man of note In his day, played no incon- 
siderable part in opening up the wilderness, and 
suggested the formation of that vast monoply, the 
Hudson Bay Fur Company. His journals, after 
lying for more than two hundred years in manu- 
script, have been published and have proved very 
interesting. They give such an inside picture of 
savage life, with its nastiness, its alternate glut- 
tony and starving, and its ferocity, as it would be 
hard to find elsewhere, drawn in such English 
as the wildest humorist would not dream of 
inventing. 

Pierre Esprit Radisson was born at St. Malo, 
in France, and came to Canada in May, 1651. 
His home was at Three Rivers, where his rela- 
tives were settled. One day he went out gunning 
with two friends. They were warned by a man 
whom they met that hostile Indians were lurking 
in the neighborhood. Still they went on, for- 
getting their danger in the enjoyment of shooting 
ducks. Finally, however, one of the party said 
he would not go further, and the other joined 
him. This led Radisson to banter them, saying 
that he would go ahead and kill game enough 
for all. 

On he went, shooting again and again, until 
191 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

he had more geese and ducks than he could carry 
home. Finally, after hiding some of his game 
in a hollow tree, he started back. When he 
came near the place where he had left his com- 
panions, imagine his horror at finding their bodies, 
" one being shott through with three boulletts 
and two blowes of an hatchett on the head, and 
the other run through in several places with a 
sword and smitten with an hatchett." 

Suddenly he was surrounded by Indians who 
rose, as it were, out of the ground and rushed 
upon him, yelling like fiends. He fired his gun, 
wounding two with the duck-shot, and his pistol, 
without hurting any one. The next moment he 
found himself thrown on the ground and disarmed, 
without a single blow. 

His courage had impressed the Indians so 
favorably that they treated him very kindly. 
When they pitched their camp, they oflfered 
him some of their meat, which smelt so horribly 
that he could not touch it. Seeing this, they 
cooked a special dish for him. He says it was a 
nasty mess, but, to show his appreciation, he 
swallowed some of it. This pleased his captors, 
and they further showed their good-will by un- 
tying him and letting him lie down comfortably 

192 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

between two of them, covered with a red coverlet 
through which he " might have counted the Starrs." 

The Indians traveled homeward in very lei- 
surely fashion, stopping by the way for days at a 
time and making merry with Radisson, to whom 
they evidently had taken a strong liking. When 
they tried to teach him to sing, and he turned the 
tables by singing to them in French, they were 
delighted. " Often," he says, " have I sunged in 
French, to which they gave eares with a deepe si- 
lence." They were bent on making a thorough 
savage of him. So they trimmed his hair after 
their most approved fashion and plastered it with 
grease. 

He pleased his captors greatly by his good hu- 
mor and his taking part in chopping wood, 
paddling, or whatever might be doing, and chiefly 
by his not making any attempt to escape. In 
truth, he simply was afraid of being caught and 
dealt with more severely. 

They were traveling the familiar route to the 
Iroquois country, and in time they came to a 
fishing-station, the occupants of which greeted the 
returning warriors uproariously. One of them 
struck Radisson, who, at a sign from his 
" keeper," clinched with him. The two fought 
13 193 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

furiously, wrestling and " clawing one another 
with hands, tooth, and nails." The Frenchman 
was delighted that his captors encouraged him as 
much as their fellow tribesman. He came off 
best, and they seemed mightily pleased. 

The two men whom he had wounded at the 
time of his capture, far from resenting it, showed 
him " as much charity as a Christian might have 
given." 

Still things looked squally for Radisson, when 
he entered the native village of the party and saw 
men, women, and boys drawn up in a double row, 
armed with rods and sticks, evidently for the 
savage ordeal of running the gauntlet. He was 
on the point of starting, resolved to run his swift- 
est, when an old woman took him by the hand, 
led him away to her cabin, and se]t food before 
him. How different from being tortured and 
burned, which was the fate that he expected ! 
When some of the warriors came and took him 
away to the council-fire, she followed and pleaded 
so successfully that he was given up to her, to be 
her adopted son, in the place of one who had been 
killed. 

Now nothing was too good for Radisson. The 
poor old woman had taken him to her heart, and 

194 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

she lavished kindness on him. Her daughters 
treated him as a brother, and her husband, a fa- 
mous old warrior, gave a feast in his honor, pre- 
senting him to the company under the name of 
Orinha, which was that of his son who had been 
killed. He enjoyed the savage life for a time, 
having "all the pleasures imaginable," such as 
shooting partridges and " squerells." 

But he soon grew home-sick and eager for an 
opportunity to escape. One offered itself unex- 
pectedly. He had gone off on a hunt of several 
days with three Indians who invited him to join 
them. On the second day out, they picked up a 
man who was alone and invited him to go with 
them to their camp, which he gladly did. Im- 
agine Radisson's surprise when this man, while 
the others were getting supper ready, spoke to 
him in Algonquin, that is, the language of the 
people who were allies of the French and mortal 
enemies of the Iroquois. Evidently he was a pris- 
oner who had been spared and given his liberty. 

" Do you love the French ? " he asked in a low 
tone. 

" Do you love the Algonquins ? " Radisson 
returned. 

" Indeed I do love my own people," he re- 

195 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

plied. " Why, then, do we live among these 
people? Let us kill these three fellows to-night 
with their own hatchets. It can easily be done." 

Radisson professes to have been greatly shocked. 
But in the end he fell in with the plan. The two 
treacherous villains, after eating a hearty supper 
with their intended victims, lay down beside them 
and pretended to sleep. When the three Iroquois 
were deep in slumber, they rose, killed them 
with tomahawks, loaded the canoe with guns, 
ammunition, provisions, and the victims' scalps, 
which the Algonquin had cut oflFas trophies, and 
started on the long journey to Three Rivers. 

Fourteen nights they had journeyed stealthily, 
lying in hiding all the day, for fear of meeting 
Iroquois on the war-path, and had reached a 
point but a few miles from Three Rivers, when, 
venturing to cross Lake St. Peter, a wide expan- 
sion of the St. Lawrence, by daylight, they en- 
countered a number of hostile canoes. In vain 
they turned and paddled their hardest for the 
shore they had left. The enemy gained on them 
rapidly and opened fire. At the first discharge 
the Indian was killed and the canoe was so riddled 
that it was sinking, when the Iroquois ranged 
alongside and took Radisson out. 

196 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

Now he was in trouble indeed. No more 
junketing ! No more singing of jolly French 
songs to amuse his captors, but doleful journey- 
ing along with nineteen prisoners, one French- 
man, one Frenchwoman, and seventeen Huron 
men and women, the latter constantly chanting 
their mournful death-song. 

Through the day the poor wretches lay in the 
canoes, pinioned and trussed like fowls; and at 
night they were laid on the ground securely fas- 
tened to posts, so that they could not move hand 
or foot, while mosquitoes and flies swarmed about 
them. When the Iroquois country was reached, 
they furnished sport to the whole population, 
which turned out everywhere to greet them with 
tortures. This time Radisson did not wholly 
escape. But when, for the second time, he was on 
the point of running the gauntlet, for the second 
time his " mother " rescued him. His " father " 
lectured him roundly on the folly of running 
away from people who had made him one of the 
family. Still he exerted himself strenuously to 
save Radisson from the death penalty which hung 
over him, and suceeeded in securing his release 
after he had been duly tortured. 

"Then," he says, "my father goes to seeke 
197 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

rootes, and my sister chaws them and my mother 
applyes them to my sores as a plaster." After a 
month of this primitive surgery, he was able to go 
about again, free. 

The winter passed quietly and pleasantly. 
Then Radisson, anxious to show himself a thor- 
ough Iroquois, proposed to his "father" to let 
him go on a war-party. The old brave heartily 
approved, and the young renegade set off with a 
band for the Huron country. 

Now follows a dreary account of the atrocities 
committed. In the end the party, after perpetrat- 
ing several murders, encountered a considerable 
number of the enemy, with the loss of one of their 
men severely wounded. They burned him, to 
save him from falling into the enemy's hands, and 
then fled the country. Their arrival at home, 
with prisoners and scalps, mostly of women and 
children, was an occasion of great honor, and 
Radisson came in for his full share. 

Being now allowed greater freedom, he improved 
it to run away to join the Dutch at Fort Orange 
(Albany). He tramped all the day and all the 
night without food, and at daylight found himself 
near a Dutch settler's cabin. The Dutch treated 
him with great kindness, gave him clothes and 

198 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

shoes, and shipped him down the Hudson to 
" Menada " (Manhattan, New York), whence he 
sailed for Amsterdam. From that port he took 
ship for La Rochelle, in France, and thence back 
to Canada. 

To cover a distance of about two hundred and 
fifty miles, he had been obhged to travel about 
seven thousand ! 

Hitherto we have seen Pierre Radisson figure 
as a mere coureur de bois. Now we shall see him 
in the more important role of a discoverer. 

Probably he and his brother-in-law, Medard 
Chouart, who styled himself the Sieur des Gro- 
seillers, in the course of their long trading jour- 
neys among the Indians, in 1658 reached the 
Mississippi. One important discovery they un- 
questionably made a few years later. That they 
were the first white men trading in the Lake 
Superior region is proved by Radisson's giving 
the first description of notable objects on the 
shores of the lake. His account of the mem- 
orable experiences of this journey, considerably 
abridged, fills the remainder of this chapter. 

One cannot but wonder that, until a very recent 
time, the name of this interesting discoverer has 
not even been mentioned by historical writers, 

199 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Here was a man who certainly was of consid- 
erable importance in his day, since he was one 
of two who suggested the formation of the famous 
Hudson Bay Fur Company, and yet who, until 
lately, never was spoken of by historians who re- 
corded the achievements of Pathfinders in Amer- 
ica. What was the cause of this singular neglect ? 
Chiefly the fact that in his time Canada was full 
of adventurous voyageurs. The fur-trade was the 
great and only avenue to wealth, and it attracted 
the most daring spirits. These hardy fellows 
penetrated the wilderness in all directions, and 
it was chiefly they who made the northern por- 
tion of our country known to white men. Radis- 
son and his brother-in-law, who was his constant 
companion, belonged to this class. Their jour- 
neys were not made for scientific, but for com- 
mercial, purposes. They were simply in quest 
of furs, and whatever discoveries they made were 
accidental. Thus, little account was made of them 
at the time. 

The chief reason, however, is that the impor- 
tance of Radisson's journal escaped attention. It 
was mistaken for a mere record of wanderings. 
Places not being named — at that time they had 
no names but the Indian ones — close attention 

200 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

to the descriptions in the narrative was needed in 
order to identify them and determine his route. 
Thus it came to pass that this singularly interest- 
ing journal remained unpublished, that is, practi- 
cally unknown, for more than two hundred years. 
When, happily, the Prince Society of Boston 
recognized its value and printed it, in 1885, the 
writer at once took his rightful place among the 
Pathfinders. 

Radisson and his brother-in-law, in the spring 
of 1661, applied to the Governor of Canada for 
permission to go on a trading journey up the 
lakes. On his refusing, except on the condition 
of their taking with them two of his servants and 
giving them half of the profits, they slipped away 
at midnight without leave, having made an agree- 
ment with some Indians, probably Ojibways, of 
the Sault (Sault Ste. Marie, between Lake Hu- 
ron and Lake Superior), that these would wait 
for them at Lake St. Peter, some miles above 
Three Rivers. 

The two parties met, as agreed, and began their 
long journey. After a few days they found traces 
of a party that had preceded them, their fires still 
burning. Judging from certain signs that these 
were not enemies, they exerted themselves to 

201 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

overtake them. They found them to be a party 
of Indians from Lake Superior who had been 
to Montreal and were returning. The two bands 
united and now formed a considerable force, in 
fourteen canoes. This union proved a happy 
circumstance, for the next day they were at- 
tacked by a war-party of Iroquois who were 
lying in wait for the Lake Superior Indians, 
having observed their passage down the river. 
The Iroquois, who had fortified themselves, 
were evidently surprised to find themselves con- 
fronted by a far larger force than they expected. 

Radisson and an Indian were sent to scout and 
examine the fort. They found it to be a stock- 
ade surrounded by large rocks. The Iroquois 
made overtures for peace by throwing strings of 
wampum over the stockade, and that night they 
slipped away, leaving a free passage to Radisson's 
party. 

The next day, however, there was a brush with 
Irbquois, in which three were killed, as well as 
one of Radisson's party. The enemy were not in 
sufficient force to make a fight in the open and fell 
back into an old fort — for this region, being on 
the route to the upper lakes, was a constant battle- 
ground. Radisson's party gathered to attack it, 

202 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

the Iroquois meanwhile firing constantly, but 
doing little harm. Darkness came on, and the 
assailants filled a barrel with gunpowder and, 
" having stoped the whole " (stopped the hole) 
and tied it to the end of a long pole, tried to 
push it over the stockade. It fell back, how- 
ever, and exploded with so much force that three 
of the assailants themselves were killed. 

Radisson then made a sort of hand-grenade by- 
putting three or four pounds of powder into a 
" rind of a tree " (piece of bark) with " a fusey 
[fuse] to have time to throw the rind." This he 
flung into the fort, having directed his Indians 
to follow up the explosion by breaking in with 
hatchet and sword. Meanwhile the Iroquois 
were singing their death-song. The grenade fell 
among them and burst with terrible execution. 
Immediately Radisson's party broke in, and there 
was a scene of confusion, assailants and assailed 
unable in the darkness to distinguish friend from 
foe. 

Suddenly there fell a tremendous downpour of 
rain, with pitchy darkness, which seemed so 
timely for the Iroquois that Radisson remarks, 
" To my thinking, the Devill himselfe made that 
storme to give those men leave to escape from our 

203 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

hands." All sought shelter. When the storm 
was over the Iroquois had escaped. The victors 
found " 1 1 of our ennemy slain'd and 2 only of 
ours, besides seaven wounded." There were 
also five prisoners secured. The bodies of their 
own dead were treated with great respect. " We 
bourned our comrades," says Radisson, " being 
their custome to reduce such into ashes being 
slained in batill. It is an honnour to give them 
such a buriall." 

At daybreak the party resumed their journey, 
rejoicing in " lo heads and foure prisoners, whom 
we embarqued in hopes to bring them into our 
country, and there to burne them att our own 
leasures for the more satisfaction of our wives." 
Meanwhile they allowed themselves a little fore- 
taste of that delight. " We plagued those infor- 
tunate. We plucked out their nailes one after 
another." Probably, when Radisson says " we," 
he means the Indians only, not his brother and 
himself. 

Traveling on, the party espied a large force of 
Iroquois hovering near. Anticipating an attack, 
"we killed our foure prisoners, because they em- 
barrassed us." " If ever blind wished the Light, 
we wished the obscurity of the night, which no 

204 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

sooner approached but we embarqued ourselves 
without any noise and went along." Radisson 
thinks the Iroquois must have been encumbered 
with prisoners and booty : else they would not 
have let his party get away so easily. Fearing, 
however, to be pursued, these plied their paddles 
desperately " from Friday to tuesday without in- 
termission," their " feete and leggs " all bloody 
from being cut in dragging the canoes over sharp 
rocks in the shallows. After this terrible strain, 
being " quite spent," they were fain to rest, so 
soon as they felt themselves safe from pursuit. 

The party was following Champlain's old 
route, up the Ottawa River, across country to 
Lake Nipissing, then down its outlet, French 
River, to Lake Huron. 

After a hard and perilous journey, having 
" wrought two and twenty dayes and as many 
nights, having slept not one houre on land all 
that while," they came out on Lake Huron. 
Still trouble beset them, in the form of dearth of 
food. Game was scarce along the shore, and 
they were glad of such berries as they found. 
Radisson records that the " wildmen," as he al- 
ways calls the Indians, showed themselves " far 
gratfuUer then many Christians even to their 

205 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

owne relations," for whenever they found a good 
patch of berries they always called him and his 
brother to get a full share. In due time they 
reached a strait full of islands (the St. Mary's 
River), where an abundance of fish relieved their 
hunger, and came to " a rapid that makes the 
separation of the lake that we call Superior, or 
upper " (Sault Ste. Marie).^ 

Some of Radisson's Indian companions were 
now in their native region. They had promised 
the two Frenchmen that they " should make 
good cheare of a fish that they call Assickmack, 
wch signifieth a white fish," and so it proved.^ 

1 Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites in his "Father Marquette" quotes 
the following description, written by a Jesuit missionary about 
eight years after Radisson's visit : " What is commonly called the 
Saut is not properly a Saut, or a very high water-fall, but a very 
violent current of waters from Lake Superior, which, finding them- 
selves checked by a great number of rocks, form a dangerous cas- 
cade of half a league in width, all these waters descending and 
plunging headlong together." 

2 It is interesting to learn that the whitefish, so much prized to- 
day, was held in equally high esteem so long ago, and even before 
the coming of the white men. The same writer quoted above by 
Dr. Thwaites tells of throngs of Indians coming every summer to 
the rapids to take these fish, which were particularly abundant there, 
and describes the method. The fisherman, he says, stands upright 
in his canoe, and as he sees fish gliding between the rocks, thrust- 
ing down a pole on the end of which is -a net in the shape of a 
pocket, sometimes catches six or seven at a haul. 

206 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

Game, also, was most abundant ; and, after 
their long hardships and privations, the French- 
men thought this country " like a terrestriall 
paradise." Having rested and enjoyed the abun- 
dance of food for a while, the party went on, 
" thwarted (crossed) in a pretty broad place and 
came to an isle most delightfull for the diversity 
of its fruits." Here they supped and enjoyed 
themselves until ten o'clock, when, the night 
being line, they embarked again and before day- 
light reached the south shore of the lake. Here 
Radisson was shown a place where " many peeces 
of copper weare uncovered." He and his brother 
were about to take some specimens, when the In- 
dians told them that they would find far larger 
quantities at a place to which they were going. 

The next evidence that we encounter of the ac- 
curacy of Radisson's narrative is his description 
of the hills of shifting sand that form a striking 
feature of this part of the coast. One of the In- 
dians climbed an especially high one, and, Radisson 
says, " being there, did shew no more then a crow." 
These are the sand-hills, which the Indian legend, 
in Longfellow's " Hiawatha," says were thrown up 
by Pau-puk-keewis when he blew up a whirlwind. 
The sight of so much sand reminded Radisson of 

207 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

" the wildernesses of Turkey land, as the Turques 
makes their pylgrimages " (the desert of Arabia). 

Next the voyagers came to a very " remarquable 
place, a banke of Rocks that the wildmen made a 
sacrifice to. They fling much tobacco and other 
things in its veneration." Radisson thus describes 
this striking object. " It 's like a great Portall, 
by reason of the beating of the waves. [He 
means that the dashing of the water against the 
mass of rock has worn it away in the shape of an 
arch.] The lower part of that oppening is as bigg 
as a tower and grows bigger in the going upp. A 
shipp of 500 tuns could passe, soe bigg is the arch. 
I gave it the name of the portall of St. Peter, be- 
cause my name is so called, and that I was the 
first Christian that ever saw it." The latter state- 
ment seems unquestionably true. But Radisson's 
name did not stick — unfortunately, for " St. 
Peter's Portal " would be a better-sounding and 
more significant name than the meaningless " Pic- 
tured Rocks," which is the common designation 
of this famous object. 

This natural arch affords a striking illustration 
of the wearing effect of water. The waves con- 
stantly washing and often beating in fury upon the 
line of sandstone cliffs has, in the course of ages, 

208 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

hollowed this arch at the point where the rock 
was softest. The immense amount of material 
thus washed from the face of the cliffs has been 
thrown ashore, blown along the coast, and heaped 
up in the sand-hills which Radisson describes, and 
which are reliably reported to vary from one hun- 
dred to three hundred feet in height. 

A few days later the party came to a place 
where they made a portage of some miles, in order 
to save going around a peninsula jutting far out 
into the lake. "The way was well beaten," says 
Radisson, " because of the comers and goers, who 
by making that passage shortens their journey by 
8 dayes." From this circumstance it is evident 
that our travelers were on a frequented route, and 
that the Indians knew enough of the geography 
of the country to avoid a canoe journey of several 
hundreds of miles, by carrying their light craft 
and their goods across the base of the peninsula, 
which is here very narrow, being almost cut in 
two by a chain of lakes and rivers.-^ 

^ The great steamers of to-day follow this route, which the 
Indian's bark canoe frequented hundreds of years ago. This illus- 
trates the interesting fact that, over all this continent, the Indians 
were the earliest pathmakers. Important railroads follow the lines 
of trails made bymoccasined feet, and steamboats plough the waters 
pf routes which the birch canoe skimmed for centuries. 

H 209 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Radisson was told that " at the end of the point 
there is an isle all of copper." This is not very far 
from the truth, for this peninsula contains, about 
Keweenaw Point, the richest copper deposit in the 
world. In 1857 there was taken from one of the 
mines a mass of ore weighing 420 tons and con- 
taining more than ninety per cent of pure copper. 

Traveling on, the party met with some Chris- 
tinos, or Crees, who joined it "in hopes," says 
Radisson, " to gett knives from us, which they love 
better then we serve God, which should make us 
blush for shame." In time they came to "a cape 
very much elevated like piramides," probably the 
"Doric Rock." In a certain " channell " they 
took " sturgeons of a vast bignesse and Pycks of 
seaven foot long," probably the well-known mus- 
calonge.-*^ 

Now the long canoe voyage had come to an end, 
and as the Indians said that five days' journey 
would be needed to bring them to their homes, 
and the two white men had heavy packs which 
they were loth to carry so long a distance, they 

1 Undoubtedly it was one of these " sturgeons of a vast big- 
nesse " that, according to the legend, swallowed both Hiawatha 
and his canoe. We are now in Hiawatha's country, and we are 
constantly reminded by Radisson' s descriptions of passages in Long- 
fellow's beautiful poem. 

210 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

decided to remain where they were and let their 
red friends either come or send back for them. 
Then, being but two men, surrounded by wild 
tribes, they built themselves a little triangular log 
fort by the water-side, with its door opening 
toward the water. All around it, at a little dis- 
tance, was stretched a long cord, to which were 
fastened some small bells, " which weare senteryes" 
(sentries), Radisson says.-^ 

Having thus fortified themselves with a per- 
fect armory within, namely, " 5 guns, 2 musque- 
tons, 3 fowling-peeces, 3 paire of great pistoletts, 
and 1 paire of pocket ons, and every one his sword 
and daggar," they might feel reasonably safe in a 
country in which the natives as yet stood in awe 
of fire-arms. They had some friendly visitors, 
but would never admit more than one person at 
a time. Radisson says, in his droll way, " During 
that time we had severall alarums in ye night. 
The squerels and other small beasts, as well as 
foxes, came in and assaulted us." For food there 
was an abundance of fish and of "bustards" (wild 
geese), of which Radisson shot a great number. 

1 This little structure has a peculiar interest, because of its being, 
in all probability, the first habitation of white men on the shores of 
Lake Superior. It seems to have stood on Chequamegon Bay. 

211 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

When, after twelve days, some of their travel- 
ing companions reappeared, they were astounded 
at the sight of the fort and complimented the 
two Frenchmen by calling them " every foot 
devills to have made such a machine." They 
had brought a quantity of provisions, imagining 
the two white men to be famishing. But, lo ! 
here was a supply of game more than sufficient 
for the whole party. The Indians wondered 
how it chanced that the Frenchmen's baggage 
was so greatly reduced. These accounted for it 
by saying that, fearing lest the sight of so much 
wealth should lead to their being murdered, they 
had taken a great part of their merchandise and 
sunk it in the water, committing it to the care of 
their " devill," who was charged " not to lett 
them to be wett nor rusted, wch he promised 
faithlesse " that he would do ; all of which the 
simple creatures believed "as ye Christians the 
Gospell." Radisson explains that he and his 
brother had really buried the goods across the 
river. "We told them that lye," he says, "that 
they should not have suspicion of us." 

The two white men immensely enjoyed the pro- 
found deference paid them. When they started 
on their journey, " we went away," says Radisson, 

212 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

" free from any burden, whilst those poor misera- 
bles thought themselves happy to carry our Equi- 
page, for the hope that they had that we should 
give them a brasse ring, or an awle, or an needle." 

After traveling four days, our " 2 poore adven- 
turers for the honour of our countrey" were told 
that they were approaching their destination. 
Runners went ahead to warn the people of their 
coming, " Every one prepared to see what they 
never before have seene," that is, white men. 

Their entry into the village was made with due 
pomp, and they " destinated 3 presents, one for 
the men, one for the women, other for the chil- 
dren, to the end," says Radisson, " that we should 
be spoaken of a hundred years after, if other 
Europeans should not come in those quarters." 
These gifts having been received with great re- 
joicing, there followed feasting, powwowing in 
council, and a scalp-dance, all of which occupied 
three days and consumed, in good Indian fash- 
ion, the provisions which should have helped 
them to get through the fast approaching winter. 
Accordingly, we soon read of the horrors of 
famine, amid the gloomy wintry forests, the trees 
laden and the ground deeply covered with snow. 
Radisson gives a moving description of it. " It 

213 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

grows wors and wors dayly. . . . Every one cryes 
out for hunger. Children, you must die. ffrench, 
you called yourselves Gods of the earth, that you 
should be feered ; notwithstanding you shall tast 
of the bitternesse. ... In the morning the hus- 
band looks upon his wife, the Brother his sister, 
the cozen the cozen, the Oncle the nevew, that 
weare for the most part found dead." So for two 
or three pages he goes on telling of the cruel 
suffering and of the various substitutes for nour- 
ishing food, such as bark ground and boiled ; 
bones that had lain about the camp, picked clean 
by dogs and crows, now carefully gathered and 
boiled ; then " the skins that weare reserved to 
make us shoose, cloath, and stokins," and at 
last even the skins of the tents that covered 
them. 

Radisson and his brother had long since eaten 
their dogs. About this time " there came 2 men 
from a strange countrey who had a dogg " the 
sight of which was very tempting. " That dogge 
was very leane and as hungry as we weare." Still 
the sight of him was more than mortal could 
bear. In vain the two Frenchmen offered an 
extravagant price for the poor beast ; his owners 
would not part with him. Then they resolved 

214 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

to "catch him cunningly." So Radisson watches 
his opportunity, prowling at night near the visit- 
ors' cabin, and when the dog comes out, snatches 
him up, stabs him, and carries him to his party, 
where he is immediately cut up and " broyled 
like a pigge." Even the snow soaked with his 
blood goes into the kettles. 

Radisson's description of the horrors of that 
fearful time will not fail to remind readers of 
Hiawatha of the poet Longfellow's picture of 
a famine in the same region in which Radisson 
was. The main features are the same. There is 
the bitter cold, 

O the long and dreary winter ! 
O the cold and cruel winter ! 

There is the gloomy, snow-laden forest. 

Ever deeper, deeper, deeper 
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape. 
Fell the covering snow, and drifted 
Through the forest, round the village. 

There are the pitiful cries of the helpless, starv- 
ing ones, 

O the wailing of the children ! 
O the anguish of the women ! 

There is the hunter engaged in his bootless quest, 

215 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Vainly walked he through the forest. 
Sought for bird or beast and found none. 
Saw no track of deer or rabbit. 
In the snow beheld no footprints. 

Then came the two dread visitors, Famine and 
Fever, and fixed their awful gaze on Minnehaha, 
who 

Lay there trembling, freezing, burning 
At the looks they cast upon her. 
At the fearful words they uttered. 

Out into the forest rushes Hiawatha, crying 
frantically to Heaven, 

** Give me food for Minnehaha, 
For my dying Minnehaha ! " 
Through the far-resounding forest. 
Through the forest vast and vacant 
Rang the cry of desolation. 
But there came no other answer 
Than the echo of the woodlands, 
"Minnehaha! Minnehaha!" 

All the day he roamed the gloomy depths of the 
wintry woods, still vainly seeking food. When 
he came home empty-handed, heavy-hearted, lo ! 
the spirit of Minnehaha had fled to the Islands 
of the Blessed. Her body they laid in the snow. 

In the forest deep and darksome. 
Underneath the moaning hemlocks. 

2l6 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

The singularly vivid descriptions of Indian life, 
with its alternations of human affection and fiend- 
ish cruelty, of daring and cowardice, of gorging 
and starving, make one of the most interesting 
features of Radisson's book. He lived the life 
himself and left such a picture of it as few white 
men could have drawn. Accordingly, he soon 
tells of feasting once more. What broke the 
famine was a storm of wind and rain that caused 
the snow to fall from the trees, cleared the forests, 
and formed, after a freeze, a crust on the snow 
that enabled the hunters to kill an abundance of 
game. Deer, with their sharp hoofs, broke 
through the crust " after they made 7 or 8 capers " 
(bounds), and were easily taken. There was 
other food, too, for there came a deputation of 
Indians to visit the white strangers, accompanied 
by their women " loaded of Oates, corne that 
growes in that country." He means wild rice, 
which formed the staple food of certain tribes. 
This was a gift, and at its presentation there were 
elaborate ceremonies, the account of which fills 
several pages. Still this was only the beginning, 
for the appointed time for a grand council was 
approaching, and soon there arrived deputations 
from eighteen different tribes, until five hundred 

217 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

warriors were assembled. More feasting, more 
ceremonies, more honors to the white visitors, who 
received more beaver-skins than they could pos- 
sibly carry away, and pledges of eternal friendship 
on both sides. 

Hardly were these rites ended, when there 
came fresh troops of savages, and all began over 
again. " There weare," says Radisson, " playes, 
mirths, and bataills for sport. In the publick 
place the women danced with melody. The yong 
men that indeavoured to gett a pryse [prize] in- 
deavored to clime up a great post, very smooth, 
and greased with oyle of beare." 

Then followed a most interesting exhibition 
" in similitud of warrs," the young men going 
through the various motions of attack, retreat, 
and the like, without a word, all the commands 
being given by " nodding or gesture," the old men 
meanwhile beating furiously on drums made of 
"earthen potts full of water covered with staggs- 
skin." There followed a dance of women, " very 
modest, not lifting much their feete from the 
ground, making a sweet harmony." 

Finally, after more feasting, more " renewing 
of alliances," more exchange of gifts, in which, of 
course, the Frenchmen received valuable furs in 

218 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

return for the merest trifles, the great assembly 
broke up, the red men filed off toward their dis- 
tant villages, and the honored strangers started on 
their long homeward journey, with numerous 
sled-loads of peltry. 

All that summer they traveled among the num- 
erous islands on the north shore of the great lake, 
enjoying an abundance of ducks, fish, and fresh 
meat. Radisson was amazed at " the great num- 
ber of ffowles that are so fatt by eating of this 
graine [wild rice] that heardly they will move from 
it." He saw " a wildman killing 3 ducks at once 
with one arrow." 

When the final start was made for the French 
settlements, there were seven hundred Indians 
in 360 canoes, with a proportionately large quan- 
tity of beaver-skins. A stop was made at the 
River of Sturgeons, to lay in a store of food against 
the voyage. In a few days over a thousand of 
these fish were killed and dried. 

After they had started again, Radisson came 
near to parting unwillingly with the splendid fleet 
of canoes that he was guiding down to the French 
settlements. One day they espied seven Iroquois. 
So great was the dread of these formidable savages, 
that, though these seven took to their heels and 

219 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

discarded their kettles, even their arms, in their 
flight, the sight of them threw the hundreds with 
Radisson into a panic. They were for breaking 
up and putting off their visit to Montreal for a 
year. Radisson pleaded hard, and, after twelve 
days of delay and powwowing, he succeeded in 
prevailing on all except the Crees to go on with 
him. 

Down the St. Mary's River into Lake Huron 
the great fleet of canoes went in long procession. 
Then, the wind being favorable, everybody hoisted 
some kind of sail, and they were driven along 
merrily until they came to the portage. This 
passed, they went on down the Ottawa River 
without misadventure as far as the long rapids. 
Then another panic seized the Indian fleet, this 
time on more reasonable grounds, for the party 
discovered the evidences of a slaughter of French- 
men. Seventeen of these, with about seventy 
Algonquins and Hurons, had laid an ambush 
here for Iroquois, whom they expected to pass 
this way. Instead, the biter was bitten. The 
Iroquois, when they came, numbered many hun- 
dreds, and they overwhelmed and, after a des- 
perate resistance, destroyed the little band of 
Frenchmen, with their allies. The appalling 

220 



DISCOVERERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

evidences of this slaughter were terrible proof that 
the enemy were numerous in that neighborhood. 
Even Radisson and his brother were alarmed. 
They had much ado to persuade their Indian 
friends to go on with them. As last they suc- 
ceeded and proudly led to Montreal the biggest 
canoe-fleet that had ever arrived there, " a number 
of boats that did almost cover ye whole River." 

It was a great triumph for the two daring 
voyageurs to bring to market such a volume of 
trade and many Indians from distant tribes who 
never before had visited the French. 

They expected that this service would be 
recognized. Instead, the Governor put Gro- 
seiliers in prison and fined both an enormous 
sum for going away without his leave. Incensed 
at this injustice, they determined on going to 
London and offering their services to the Eng- 
lish King. This was the reason of Radisson's 
translating the notes of his travels into a language 
that was foreign to him, with such queer results 
as we have seen in the extracts that have been 
given. 



221 



Chapter XIII 



ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE, 
THE FIRST EXPLORER OF THE 
LOWER MISSISSIPPI 



/ 



Chapter XIII 



ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE, 

THE FIRST EXPLORER OF THE 

LOWER MISSISSIPPI 

La Salle's Early Association with the Jesuits. — His Domain 
in Canada. — He starts on an Exploring Expedition. — Dis- 
appears from View. — The Favor of Frontenac. — La Salle's 
Extraordinary Commission. — Niagara Falls. — The First 
Vessel ever launched on the Upper Lakes. — Great Hard- 
ships of the Journey. — Arrival in the Country of the Illinois. 

— Fort Crfevecoeur built. — Perilous Journey back to Canada. 

— La Salle starts again for the Illinois Country. — Iroquois 
Atrocities and Cannibalism. — La Salle goes as far as the 
Mississippi and returns. — Tonty's Perilous Experiences. — 
Boisrondet's Ingenuity saves his Life. — La Salle journeys 
down the Great River. — Interesting Tribes of Indians. — 
The Ocean ! — Louisiana named. — Hardships of the Return 
Journey. — Fort St. Louis built. 

ROBERT CAVELIER, more generally 
known as La Salle, at the first was 
connected with the Jesuits, but left 
the Society of Jesus and, at the youth- 
ful age of twenty-three, came to Canada to seek 
his fortune. He had an elder brother among the 
priests of St. Sulplce. These, being anxious to 
have a fringe of settlements outside of their own 
15 225 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

as a sort of screen against Indian attacks, granted 
to La Salle a quite considerable tract a few miles 
from Montreal. Here he laid out a village sur- 
rounded by a palisade and let out his land to 
settlers for a trifling rent. 

With a view to exploration, he at once began 
to study the Indian languages. Like Champlain 
and all the early explorers, he dreamed of a pas- 
sage to the Pacific and a new route for the com- 
merce of China and Japan. The name which 
to this day clings to the place which he settled. 
La Chine (China), is said to have been bestowed 
by his neighbors, in derision of what they consid- 
ered his visionary schemes. 

After two or three years La Salle, beginning 
his real life-work, sold his domain and its im- 
provements, equipped a party, and started out 
into the wilderness. We trace his route as far as 
the Seneca country, in western New York. Then 
for two years we lose sight of him altogether. 
This time he passed among the Indians ; and 
there is the best reason for believing that he dis- 
covered the Ohio River and, quite probably, the 
Illinois. 

When Joliet and Marquette ascertained that 
the outlet of the Great Water was in the Gulf of 

226 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

Mexico, their discovery put an end to the fond 
hope of establishing a new route to East India 
and China by way of the Mississippi, but it in- 
spired a brilliant thought in La Salle's mind. 
Why should France be shut up in Canada, with 
its poverty, its rigorous climate, its barren soil, 
covered with snow for half the year? Why not 
reach out and seize the vast interior, with its 
smiling prairies and thousands of miles of fertile 
soil, with the glorious Mississippi for a water- 
way ? She already held the approach at one end, 
namely, through the St. Lawrence and the Great 
Lakes. Let her go forward on the path which 
lay open before her. To realize this splendid 
dream became the purpose of his life. 

The coming of Count Frontenac to Canada as 
its governor was a boon to La Salle. Both were 
essentially men of the world, with ambitions of 
their own. Both were strong men, daring, 
ardent, and resolute ; and both heartily hated the 
Jesuits and were hated by them with equal fervor. 
Both, too, were men of small means who aimed 
at vast results. In short, they were kindred 
spirits. But the one was Governor of Canada, 
and the other was an almost penniless adventurer. 
This fact determined their relations. La Salle 

227 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

became a partisan of Frontenac, siding with him 
against certain fur-traders and the Jesuits. Fron- 
tenac became the protector of La Salle, backing 
his schemes with his influence and giving him a 
strong recommendation to the King. 

Now, Frontenac had built a fort near the lower 
end of Lake Ontario, about the site of Kingston. 
It had the look of being* a great public benefit, 
for it would help to hold the Iroquois in check 
and it would cut off^ trade from the English. On 
these grounds the expense of building it was jus- 
tified. But the Jesuits and the fur-traders were 
opposed to it, the fur-traders because they 
foresaw the loss of a large part of their trade. 
Indians bringing their annual canoe-loads of 
peltry to market would not take the long trip to 
Montreal and Quebec, if they could barter them 
off^ at a much nearer point. They suspected, 
with good reason, that this new fort, erected os- 
tensibly for the defence of the country, was really 
meant to cut off from them the trade that came 
down the Lakes and turn it into the hands of the 
Governor and those who might be in secret 
league with him. 

The feeling was very strong, and attempts 
were made to induce the King to have the ob- 

228 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

noxious fort demolished. Just then La Salle 
sailed for France with strong letters from Fron- 
tenac. Imagine the rage of his opponents when 
he returned not only master of the fort, but a 
titled man, the Sieur de La Salle, with the King's 
patent in his pocket giving him a princely grant 
of many square miles on the mainland and the 
adjacent islands ! 

But how was a needy adventurer to raise the 
money to pay for the fort and to do all the high- 
sounding things that he had promised the King ? 
He counted on raising money on the strength of 
his great expectations. He was not disappointed. 
His friends and relatives rejoicing in his good 
fortune, which they naturally hoped to share, 
lent large sums of money to enable him to carry 
out his agreement with his royal master. Now 
he began piling up a mass of debts that alone 
would have crushed a common man. He had, 
besides, a tremendous combination to fight, nearly 
all the merchants of the colony, backed by the 
influence of the Jesuits. 

Still La Salle might have settled down in his 
seigniory, commanded his soldiers, lorded it over 
his colony, controlled the trade of the Lakes, paid 
oflf his debts, and have grown enormously rich 

229 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

within a few years from the profits of the fur- 
trade. But he flew at higher game than money, 
and cared for it only as it might serve his ambi- 
tion. He was dreaming of the Gulf of Mexico 
and in imagination ruling a Southwestern New 
France many times larger than the old. 

Therefore he took ship again for France. 
This time he went crowned with success. He 
had done all and more than all that he had en- 
gaged to do. He had torn down the wooden 
fort and replaced it with one of stone, surmounted 
with nine cannon. He had erected a forge, a 
mill, a bakery, barracks, and officers' quarters. 
He had gathered about him a village of Iroquois, 
who were under the teaching of two Recollet 
friars. Some French families had been settled 
on farms. Land had been cleared and planted. 
Cattle, fowls, and swine had been brought up 
from Montreal. Four small vessels had been 
built for use on the lake and river. Altogether, 
French civilization was handsomely represented 
at this lonely outpost ; and La Salle had shown 
what he was capable of doing as an organizer and 
ruler. Now he went to ask another grant. 

Fancy the dismay of his opponents when he 
came back, in the following year, with an ex- 

230 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

traordinary commission that gave him authority 
to " labor at the discovery of the western parts of 
New France, through which, to all appearance, 
a way may be found to Mexico!'' The last words 
show its true purpose. Louis aimed a blow at 
his enemy, Spain, the mistress of Mexico, and 
La Salle was the arm through which he meant to 
strike. The document gave him authority to 
build forts wherever he saw fit, and to own and 
govern them under the same conditions as Fort 
Frontenac. In short, he had a roving commis- 
sion to go wherever he pleased between the east- 
ern end of Lake Ontario and the borders of 
Mexico, and to exercise the authority of a royal 
governor anywhere in all that vast region. But 
he must do all at his own expense, and he must 
do it all within five years. 

His most serious need was that of money. 
But, with his usual success in drawing other 
men's means into his schemes, he obtained a 
large sum, on which he was to pay interest at the 
rate of forty per cent. We can see that he was 
piling up debts fast enough to meet the wishes of 
his heartiest haters. 

Now La Salle was in a position to enter on his 
grand undertaking, the dream to which he de- 

231 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

voted his life. His first step was to send a party 
of men ahead in canoes to Lake Michigan, to trade 
with the Indians and collect provisions against his 
coming, while another party, one of whom was the 
famous Father Hennepin, started in a small vessel 
up Lake Ontario, to await La Salle's coming at 
Niagara. In due time they reached the Niagara 
River, and the earliest published account of the 
great cataract is Father Hennepin's.^ 

This advance party had orders to begin a fort 
on the Niagara River, but the distrust of the 
Senecas proved to be an obstinate barrier. This 
famous tribe, occupying the Genesee Valley 
northward to the shore of Lake Ontario, while 
on the west its territory extended to Lake Erie, 
was fiercely jealous of white men's coming to 
plant themselves in their country. 

When La Salle arrived, however, with his 
usual tact in managing Indians, he succeeded in 
securing their consent to his putting up, not a 
fort, but a fortified warehouse at the mouth of 
the Niagara River and building a vessel above 
the Falls. 

^ The famous falls are first mentioned in the Jesuit " Relations " 
of 1648. Their name is of Iroquois origin and in the Mohawk 
dialect is pronounced Nyagarah. 

232 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

Now the first of a series of misfortunes befell 
him in the loss of the little vessel that had 
brought him to Niagara. She was freighted with 
the Outfit for his great exploration and with goods 
for barter. But everything was lost, except only 
the anchors and cables intended for the vessel 
that was to be built. He bore the loss with his 
unvarying fortitude. 

At last all difficulties were so far overcome 
that the keel of the little vessel was laid. While 
the work was going on, Indians were hanging 
around watching it sullenly, and a squaw told the 
French that her people meant to burn it. The 
weather was cold, and the men of the party them- 
selves had little heart in the enterprise. The 
loss of provisions in the wrecked vessel had put 
them on short allowance. Only the skill of two 
Mohegan hunters kept them supplied with food. 
It was hard work, too, for the builders needed to 
bring loads from the other vessel on their backs, 
a distance of some twelve miles. 

In spite of all these difficulties, the little craft 
was finished, and, at the opening of the ice in the 
spring, there glided down into the Niagara the 
first keel that ever cut the water of the Upper 
Lakes, the forerunner of to-day's enormous 

^Z2> 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

tonnage. Her figure-head was a mythical mon- 
ster, and her name the " Griffin," both taken from 
Frontenac's coat of arms. 

On August 7, the " Griffin " fired her cannon, 
spread her sails, and bore away up Lake Erie, 
carrying the expedition which La Salle hoped 
would make him master of the Mississippi Valley. 
The plan was to sail to the head of Lake Michi- 
gan, near the site of Chicago, then to march to 
the Illinois River ; there to build another vessel, 
and in the latter to sail down the Mississippi, 
into the Gulf, and to the very West Indies — an 
enterprise of Titanic audacity. 

The first part of the voyage was delightful. 
We may wonder whether our voyagers saw one 
amazing sight which Jonathan Carver describes. 
" There are," he says, " several islands near the 
west end of it [Lake Erie] so infested with rattle- 
snakes that it is very dangerous to land on them. 
The lake is covered, near the banks of the islands, 
with the large pond-lily, the leaves of which lie 
on the water so thick as to cover it entirely for 
many acres together ; and on each of these lay, 
when I passed over it, wreaths of water-snakes 
basking in the sun, which amounted to myriads ! " 

On the shore were verdant prairies and fine 

234 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

forests. When the voyagers entered Detroit 
River they saw herds of deer and flocks of wild 
turkeys, and the hunters easily kept the party 
supplied with venison and bear meat. On they 
sailed, across Lake St. Clair and out upon Lake 
Huron, passed within sight of the Manitoulins, 
and finally came to anchor in the cove of Mack- 
inaw Strait, where were the famous trading-post 
and mission-station of Michillimackinac. 

At Green Bay La Salle found some of his men 
who had remained faithful and had collected a 
large store of furs. This circumstance caused 
him new perplexity. He had furs enough to 
satisfy his creditors, and he was strongly moved 
to go back to the colony and settle with them. 
On the other hand, he dreaded leaving his party, 
which would surely be tampered with by his ene- 
mies. Should his strong hand be withdrawn, the 
party probably would go to pieces. Finally he 
decided to remain with the expedition and to 
send the " Griffin " back with her valuable cargo 
to Fort Niagara and with orders to return im- 
mediately to the head of Lake Michigan. It 
was an unfortunate decision. The vessel's pilot 
was already under suspicion of having treacher- 
ously wrecked the vessel which perished on Lake 

235 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Ontario. The " Griffin " sailed and never was 
heard of again. Whether she foundered on the 
lake, was dashed on the shore, or was plundered 
and scuttled. La Salle never knew. He believed 
the latter to have been the case. Her loss was 
the breaking of an indispensable link in the 
chain. But La Salle was still ignorant of it, and 
he went on his way hopefully to the head of 
Lake Michigan. 

A hard time the men had in paddling the 
heavily laden canoes, subsisting on a scant ration 
of Indian corn, and at night dragging the canoes 
up a steep bank and making their cheerless camp. 
By the timeithat they reached the site of Milwau- 
kee all were worn out. 

They were glad enough when they saw two or 
three eagles among a great gathering of crows or 
turkey-buzzards, and, hastening to the spot, they 
found the torn carcass of a deer, lately killed by 
wolves. However, as they neared the head of 
the lake, game became more abundant, and La 
Salle's famous Mohegan hunters had no difficulty 
in providing bear's meat and venison. 

Winter was fast setting in, and La Salle was 
anxious to go on to the Illinois towns before the 
warriors should go away on their usual winter 

236 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

hunting. But he was compelled to wait for 
Tonty, an Italian officer of great courage and 
splendid loyalty who had come out to America 
as his lieutenant. With twenty men, he was 
making his way by land down the eastern shore. 
At last he appeared, with his men half-starved, 
having been reduced to living on acorns. But 
where was the " Griffin " ? This was the place 
appointed for her meeting with the expedition. 
But there were no tidings of her fate. After 
waiting as long as he could. La Salle, with heavy 
forebodings, pushed on. 

Now the explorers shouldered their canoes and 
struck out across the frozen swamps. At last 
they came to a sluggish streamlet, the head- 
waters of the Kankakee. They launched their 
canoes on it and were carried, within a few days, 
into a prairie country strewn with the carcasses of 
innumerable buffalo, for this was a favorite hunt- 
ing-ground of the Indians. But not one of the 
animals was in sight. The men were nearly starv- 
ing and, at the best, discontented and sullen. Two 
lean deer and a few geese, all the game that the 
hunters had been able to secure within several 
days, were short commons for thirty-three men 
with appetites sharpened by traveling in the keen 

237 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

December air. It was a God-send when they 
found a buffalo-bull mired fast. The famished 
men quickly despatched him, and by the efforts 
of twelve of their number dragged the huge car- 
cass out of the slough. 

Down the Illinois River the voyagers traveled 
until they came in sight of wigwams on both sides 
of the river. La Salle expected trouble, for his 
enemies had been busy among the Illinois, stir- 
ring them up against him by representing that he 
had incited the Iroquois to make war upon them. 
He ordered his men to take their arms. Then 
the eight canoes in line abreast drifted down be- 
tween the two wings of the encampment. 

There was great confusion on both banks. 
The women screeched, and the men yelled and 
seized their bows and war-clubs. La Salle knew 
well how to deal with Indians and that it was 
poor policy to show himself too eager for peace. 
He leaped ashore, followed by his men, arms in 
hand. The Indians were more frightened by his 
sudden appearance than disposed to attack him, 
as they at once showed by holding up a peace 
pipe. And soon they overwhelmed the strangers 
with lavish hospitality. 

These people, who formed one of the largest 
238 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

branches of the Algonquin stock, were particular 
objects of hatred to the Iroquois. At one time 
they were driven across the Mississippi by these 
ruthless foes, who had traveled five or six hundred 
miles to attack them. There, probably, they en- 
countered equally savage enemies, the Sioux. At 
all events, they returned to their old abode on 
the Illinois River, where La Salle found them. 
The deadly enmity of the Iroquois toward them 
burst out again shortly afterward, as we shall see. 
La Salle took advantage of the opportunity to 
assure his hosts that if the Iroquois attacked them, 
he would stand by them, give them guns, and 
fight for them. Then he shrewdly added that he 
intended building a fort among them and a big 
wooden canoe in which he would descend to the 
sea and bring goods for them. All this looked 
very plausible and won their hearts. The next 
day La Salle and his companions were invited to 
a feast and, of course, went. The host seized the 
opportunity of warning them against descending 
the Great Water. He told them that its banks 
were infested by ferocious tribes and its waters 
full of serpents, alligators, dangerous rocks, and 
whirlpools ; in short, that they never would reach 
the ocean alive. 

239 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

This harangue was interpreted to La Salle's 
men by two coureurs de bois who understood 
every word of it. La Salle saw dismay overspread- 
ing the faces of his already disheartened men. 
But when his turn came to speak, he gave the 
Indians a genuine surprise. " We were not 
asleep," he said, "when the messenger of my 
enemies told you that we were spies of the Iro- 
quois. We know all his lies and that the presents 
he brought you are at this moment buried in the 
earth under this lodge." This proof of what 
seemed more than human sagacity overwhelmed 
the Indians, and they had nothing more to say, 
little dreaming that La Salle had received secret 
information from a friendly chief. 

Nevertheless, the next morning, when La Salle 
looked about for his sentinels, not one of them 
was to be seen. Six of his men, including two of 
the best carpenters, upon whom he depended for 
building the vessel, had deserted. 

To withdraw his men from the demoralizing 
influences of the Indian camp. La Salle chose a 
naturally strong position at some distance down 
the river, fortified it, and built lodgings for the 
men, together with a house for the friars. This, 
the first habitation reared by white men in the 

240 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

territory now comprised in the State of Illinois, 
stood a little below the site of Peoria and was 
called Fort Crevecoeur. This name, Fort Break- 
Heart, was taken from that of a celebrated fortifi- 
cation in Europe. It was to be a heart-breaker 
to the enemy. 

La Salle believed in the doctrine of work as 
the best preventive of low spirits, and he kept his 
men at it. No sooner was the fort finished than 
he began to build the vessel. Two of his car- 
penters, we remember, had deserted. " Seeing," 
he says, " that if I should wait to get others from 
Montreal, I should lose a whole year, I said one 
day before my people that I was so vexed to find 
that the absence of two sawyers would defeat my 
plans, that I was resolved to try to saw the planks 
myself, if I could find a single man who would 
help me with a will." Two men stepped forward 
and said they would try what they could do. 
The result was that the work was begun and was 
pushed along so successfully that within two weeks 
the hull of the vessel was half finished. 

La Salle now felt free to make the unavoidable 

journey to Montreal, to look after his affairs. 

His men were in better heart, and the vessel was 

well on its way to completion. Leaving the faith- 

i6 241 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

ful Tonty in charge of the fort with its garrison, 
mostly of scoundrels, he set out with his trusty 
Mohegan and four Frenchmen. 

A few days earlier he had sent off Father Hen- 
nepin with two Frenchmen, to explore the lower 
part of the Illinois. In another place we shall 
read the story of their adventures. 

We shall not follow La Salle on his journey 
back to Canada. It was a terribly hard experience 
of sixty-five days' travel through a country beset 
with every form of difficulty and swarming with 
enemies, " the most arduous journey," says the 
chronicler, " ever made by Frenchmen in Amer- 
ica." But there was a worse thing to come. 
When La Salle reached Niagara, he learned not 
only the certainty of the " Griffin's " loss, with her 
valuable cargo, but that a vessel from France 
freighted with indispensable goods for him had 
been wrecked at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 
and a party of twenty hired men on their way 
from Europe to join him had, on their arrival, 
been so disheartened by reports of his failure and 
death, that only four persisted in their purpose. 

This was but the beginning of a series of dis- 
asters. His agents at Fort Frontenac had plun- 
dered him ; his creditors had seized his property ; 

242 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

several of his canoes loaded with furs had been 
lost in the rapids of the St, Lawrence ; and a let- 
ter from Tonty, brought to him by two voy- 
ageurs, told him that nearly all the men, after 
destroying Fort Crevecoeur, had deserted. 

What a blow ! Fort Crevecoeur, with its sup- 
plies, was the base of his great enterprise. Now 
it was destroyed, its garrison gone, and Tonty, 
with a few faithful men, alone remained of his 
costly expedition. But this lion-hearted man, 
whom no disasters could daunt, borrowed more 
money at ruinous rates of interest, captured a 
party of his deserters on Lake Ontario, killing 
two who resisted arrest and locking up the others 
at Fort Frontenac, and hastened off on the long 
journey to relieve Tonty in the Illinois country. 

When the party reached the Illinois River they 
beheld a stirring sight. Far and near, the prairie 
was alive with buffalo, while hundreds were 
plunging and snorting in the water. The oppor- 
tunity was not to be lost. The voyagers landed 
and encamped for a hunt. For three days they 
gave themselves up to the excitement of the 
chase, killing twelve buffalo, besides deer, geese, 
and swans. Then, with an ample supply of 
dried and smoked meat, they re-embarked. 

243 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

When they reached the site of the populous 
Illinois town, the place was desolate, not a hu- 
man being in sight. Only heaps of ashes and 
charred poles and stakes showed where the lodges 
had stood. The whole meadow was blackened 
by fire. Hundreds of wolves skulked about the 
burial ground of the village. The ground was 
strewn with broken bones and mangled corpses. 
Every grave had been rifled, and the bodies had 
been thrown down from the scaffolds where many 
of them had been placed. 

It was evident what had happened. The Iro- 
quois had made a descent, in some way had 
missed their prey, and had wreaked their ven- 
geance on the dead. But where were Tonty and 
his men ^ There was no sign of their having 
been killed. Neither had any trace been ob- 
served of their passing up the river. It must be 
that they had escaped down the river with the 
Illinois in their flight. La Salle promptly deter- 
mined what to do. Leaving a part of his men, 
he hid his baggage and started down the stream 
with a few trusty men carrying little besides their 
arms. When they reached the ruins of Fort 
Crevecceur, they found the vessel on the stocks 
untouched. 

244 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

La Salle pushed on down to the mouth of the 
river, without finding a trace of his missing coun- 
trymen. Now the Great Water rolled before 
him. Once he had dreamed night and day of 
seeing it. But to see it under such circumstances 
as these, — what a mockery of his hopes ! The 
one thought on his mind was to find and rescue 
Tonty. There was no sign of him here. To 
go further would have been useless, and La 
Salle turned back, paddling day and night, and 
rejoined his men whom he had left. Then all 
started northward. On their way down they had 
followed the Kankakee. Now they took the 
Des Plaines route. Near a bark cabin a bit of 
wood that had been cut with a saw showed that 
Tonty and his men had gone this way. If they 
had but left at the fork of the stream some sign 
of their passage. La Salle's party would have seen 
it on their way down, and all this anxiety would 
have been obviated. 

With his mind relieved. La Salle was glad to 
rest for a while at his little Fort Miami, situated 
at the mouth of the St. Joseph River. 

Tonty had passed through perilous straits. 
The desertion of the larger part of his men left 
him with but three fighting men and two friars. 

245 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Next came a tremendous war-party of Iroquois 
to attack the Illinois, in the midst of whom he 
was. For various reasons, the Illinois suspected 
that the Frenchmen had brought this trouble 
upon them and, but for Tonty's coolness, would 
have mobbed and murdered the little handful of 
white men. When the Iroquois began the attack, 
Tonty went among them, at the peril of his life, 
actually receiving a wound from an infuriated 
young warrior, and succeeded in stopping the 
fighting by telling the Iroquois that the Illinois 
numbered twelve hundred, and that there were 
sixty armed Frenchmen, ready to back them. 

The effect of this timely fabrication was mag- 
ical. The Iroquois at once were for peace and 
employed Tonty to arrange a truce. That night 
the Illinois slipped away down the river. The 
Iroquois followed them, on the opposite shore, 
watching for an opportunity to attack. This did 
not offer itself, but they actually drove the Illi- 
nois out of their own country, after perpetrating 
a butchery of women and children. 

Meanwhile they had discovered Tonty's de- 
ception and were enraged. He had robbed them 
of a prey for which they had marched hundreds 
of miles. Only a wholesome fear of Count 

246 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

Frontenac, of whom the Indians stood in great 
awe, kept them from falling on the Httle band. 
As it was, matters looked so stormy that the 
Frenchmen stood on the watch all night, expect- 
ing an attack. At daybreak the chiefs bade them 
begone. Accordingly they embarked in a leaky 
canoe and started up the river. 

At their first stop Father Ribourde strolled 
away. When he did not reappear his comrades 
became alarmed. Tonty and one of the men 
went in search of him. They followed his tracks 
until they came to the trail of a band of Indians 
who had apparently carried him off. They after- 
ward learned that a roving band of Kickapoos, 
one of the worst specimens of the Algonquin 
stock, prowling around the Iroquois camp in 
search of scalps, had murdered the inoffensive old 
man and carried his scalp in triumph to their 
village. 

Another of their party came near to meeting 
with an untimely end, but his ingenuity saved his 
life. They had abandoned their worthless canoe 
and were making their way on foot, living on 
acorns and roots, when the young Sieur de Bois- 
rondet wandered off and was lost. The flint of 
his gun had dropped out, and he had no bullets. 

247 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

But he cut a pewter porringer into slugs, dis- 
charged his gun with a fire-brand, and thus killed 
wild turkeys. After several days he was so 
fortunate as to rejoin his party. 

The poor fellows suffered terribly from cold 
and hunger while making their way along the 
shore of Lake Michigan, but finally found a hos- 
pitable refuge among the Pottawattamies, of Green 
Bay, a friendly Algonquin tribe. 

La Salle's heart was as much as ever set on 
following the Great Water to the sea. But he 
had learned the difficulties in the way of building 
a vessel and had resolved to travel by canoe. 

The winter at Fort Miami was spent by him 
in organizing the expedition. With this view he 
gathered about him anumber of Indians from the 
far East who had fled for safety to the western 
wilds after the disastrous issue of King Philip's 
War, chiefly Abenakis, from Maine, and Mohe- 
gans from the Hudson. These New England 
Indians, who had long been the deadly foes of the 
English Puritans, were happy in enrolling them- 
selves under a Frenchman and were ready to 
go with La Salle anywhere. His plan was to 
form a great Indian confederation, like that of the 
Five Nations, and powerful enough to resist it. 

248 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

With this powerful body of Indians, backed by a 
sufficient number of French guns, he could hold 
the Mississippi Valley against all enemies, white 
or red. 

When he had opened the route to the Gulf of 
Mexico by passing down the Great River and tak- 
ing possession of its whole length in the name of the 
French King, there would be a new outlet for the 
immensely valuable fur-trade of all that vast area 
drained by it and its tributaries. Instead of the 
long journey down the Lakes and the St. Law- 
rence, trade would take the shorter and easier 
route to the Gulf of Mexico. 

But how could even La Salle fail to see the 
enormous difficulties in the way, — the hostility of 
remote tribes down the river ; the sure opposition 
of Spain, which was supreme on and around the 
Gulf, and, most of all, the bitter enmity of the 
French in Canada ? The scheme meant disaster 
to their interests, by turning a large part of their 
trade into another channel and setting up on the 
Mississippi a new and powerful rival of Canada, 
with La Salle at its head. 

All commercial Canada and nearly all official 
Canada were already incensed against him on the 
mere suspicion of his purposes. If they saw 

249 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

these taking actual form, would they not rage 
and move heaven and earth, that is to say, Louis 
the Great,^ to crush them ? A man of less than 
La Salle's superhuman audacity would not in his 
wildest moments have dreamed of such a thing. 
He deliberately cherished the scheme and set 
himself calmly to executing it. 

On December 21, 1682, the expedition started 
from Fort Miami. It consisted of twenty-three 
white men, eighteen Indian warriors, and ten 
squaws, with three children. These New Eng- 
land savages had made a bloody record in their 
own country, knew well how to use guns, and 
were better adapted to the work in hand than 
raw Europeans, however brave, who had no ex- 
perience of Indian warfare. 

On February 6 the voyagers saw before them 
the broad current of the Mississippi, full of 
floating ice. For a long distance they paddled 
their canoes down the mighty current without 
adventure. As they fared on day by day, they 
realized that they were entering a summer land. 
The warm air and hazy sunlight and opening 
flowers were in delightful contrast with the ice 
and snow from which they had emerged. Once 

^ The chosen emblem of the " Grand Monarch" was the Sun. 
250 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

there seemed to be danger of an attack from 
Indians whose war-drum they could hear beat- 
ing. A fog lifted, and the Indians, looking 
across the river, saw the Frenchmen at work 
building a fort. Peace signals were displayed 
from both sides, and soon the white men and 
their Indian allies from rugged New England 
were hobnobbing in the friendliest way with 
these dusky denizens of the southwestern woods. 
These were a band of the Arkansas, the same 
people who had treated Joliet and Marquette 
so handsomely. They lavished every kind at- 
tention on their guests and kept them three 
days. The friar, Membre, who chronicled the 
expedition, describes them as "gay, civil, and 
free-hearted, exceedingly well-formed and with 
all so modest that not one of them would take 
the liberty to enter our hut, but all stood quietly 
at the door." He adds, "we did not lose the 
value of a pin while we were among them." 

La Salle had now reached the furthest point of 
Joliet and Marquette's exploration. He reared a 
cross, took possession of the country in his 
master's name, and pushed on. On the western 
side of the river they visited the home of the 
Taensas Indians and were amazed at the degree 

251 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

of social advancement which they found among 
them. There were square dwellings, built of 
sun-baked mud mixed with straw, and arranged 
in regular order around an open area ; and the 
King was attended by a council of sixty grave 
old men wearing white cloaks of the fine inner 
fibre of mulberry bark. The temple was a 
large structure, full of a dim, mysterious gloom, 
within which burned a sacred fire, as an emblem 
of the sun, watched and kept up unceasingly 
by two aged priests. 

Altogether, the customs and social condition 
of these people were more like those of the 
ancient Peruvians and Mexicans than those of 
the wild tribes with whom the explorers were 
familiar. When the chief visited La Salle he 
came in great state, preceded by women who 
bore white fans, and wearing a disk of burnished 
copper, — probably to indicate that he was a child 
of the Sun, for the royal family claimed this 
high lineage. 

The next day the Frenchmen visited a kindred 
tribe, the Natchez, among whom they observed 
similar usages. They were hospitably entertained 
and spent the night in their villages. Their chief 
town was some miles distant, near the site of the 

252 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

city of Natchez. Here again La Salle planted a 
cross, less as a symbol of Christianity than of 
French occupation.^ 

1 The Taensas and the Natchez were singularly interesting 
tribes. Their social organization did not differ radically from that 
of other Indians, But they had developed one peculiar feature : 
the principal clan had become a ruling caste, and the chiefs were 
revered as demi-gods and treated with extravagant honor, numer- 
ous human victims being sacrificed at the death of one. 

The following remarks about the Taensas and the Natchez are 
taken from Father Gravier's account of his voyage, in 1700, down 
the Mississippi: — "The Natchez and the Taensas practice po- 
lygamy, steal, and are very vicious, the girls and women more 
than the men and boys. The temple having been reduced to ashes 
last year by lightning, the old man who sits guardian said that the 
spirit was incensed because no one was put to death on the decease 
of the last chief, and that it was necessary to appease him. Five 
women had the cruelty to cast their children into the fire, in sight 
of the French who recounted it to me ; and but for the French 
there would have been a great many more children burned." 

At their first coming, the French found a warm welcome among 
the Natchez, and Fort Rosalie in the Natchez country (built shortly 
after the founding of New Orleans) was the scene for many years 
of constant friendly reunions of the two races. But an arrogant 
and cruel commandant, by his ill-judged severity, at a time when 
the warlike Chickasaws were inciting the Natchez to rise, produced 
a fearful explosion. One day a solitary soldier appeared in the 
hamlet of New Orleans with fearful news. Fort Rosalie had been 
surprised, its gjarrison of over two hundred men massacred, and 
two hundred and fifty women and children taken prisoners. In 
the war that followed, the Choctaws sided with the French, the 
Chickasaws and Yazoos with the Natchez. Finally the French, 
under St. Denis, won a complete victory j the women and children 
taken at Fort Rosalie were recaptured and brought to New Orleans, 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Near the mouth of the Red River, in the neigh- 
borhood of the place where Soto had been buried, 
the voyagers, while attempting to follow some 
fleeing natives, received a shower of arrows from' 
a canoe. La Salle, anxious to avoid a hostile en- 
counter, drew his men off. No doubt the Indians 
of this region preserved proud traditions of their 
forefathers' pursuit of the escaping Spaniards, the 
remnant of Soto's expedition. 

On April 6 with what elation must La Salle 
have beheld the waters of the Gulf sparkling in 
the rays of the southern sun ! The dream of 
years was realized. His long struggle and his 
hopes and failures and renewed efforts were 
crowned with success. One hundred and ninety 
years after Columbus's discovery, at enormous 
expense, he had led a party from the great fresh- 
water seas to the southern ocean, and had opened, 
he fondly believed, a new route for trade. But 
long years were to elapse ere his vision should 
become a reality. 

Proudly and hopefully, in full view of the sea, 
he reared a cross and a column bearing the arms 

and the Natchez tribe was completely broken up. The prisoners 
were sent to die in the cruel slavery of the San Domingo sugar plan- 
tations, while a few who escaped the French were adopted into the 
Chickasaw nation. 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

of France and, with the singing of hymns and 
volleys of musketry, solemnly proclaimed Louis, 
of France, to be the rightful sovereign " of this 
country of Louisiana," as he named it, " the seas, 
harbors, ports, bays, adjacent straits, and all the 
nations, peoples, provinces, cities, towns, villages, 
mines, minerals, fisheries, streams, and rivers 
within the extent of the said Louisiana, and also 
to the mouth of the River of Palms " (the Rio 
Grande). A tremendous claim surely, the histo- 
rian Parkman remarks, covering a region watered 
by a thousand rivers, ranged by a thousand war- 
like tribes, in short, an empire in itself, and all 
by virtue of a feeble human voice, inaudible at 
half a mile ! 

Alas ! at that very time. La Salle's enemies in 
Canada had gained the upper hand and had 
secured the recall of his mainstay. Count Fron- 
tenac. This meant that he could do nothing 
more from Canada as a base of operations. 

On the return voyage the party had a hard 
time. There was the labor of paddling the 
canoes, day after day, against the strong current, 
under a blazing sun. Their supplies were ex- 
hausted, and they had little to eat but the flesh 
of alligators. In their extremity, they applied to 

255 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

the Quinipissas, a little above the site of New 
Orleans, for corn. They got it, but had to repulse 
a treacherous attack at night. The Coroas, too, 
who at the first had shown themselves very- 
friendly, were evidently bent on murdering the 
guests whom they entertained with pretended hos- 
pitality. Only the watchfulness of the French- 
men and the terror inspired by their guns saved 
them from attack. Plainly these natives had 
grown suspicious. Then La Salle was seized 
with sickness which nearly cut him off, and which 
detained him for weeks. So soon as he was able 
to travel, he moved on by slow stages and, about 
the end of August, still weak and suffering, 
reached Fort Miami, from which he had started 
eight months before. Of course, he had come 
back empty-handed, and there was nothing sub- 
stantial to show for the vast expense that had 
been incurred. His associates in Canada, who 
had advanced the money, must fain content them- 
selves with the expectation that the future would 
repay them. 

In the meantime La Salle was carrying out his 
plan of founding a colony of French and Indians 
on the banks of the lUinois. Here he built Fort 
St. Louis on a cliff, probably the one now called 

256 



ROBERT CAVELIER 

"Starved Rock," at the mouth of Vermilion 
River. Around its base, under its protection, 
were clustered the lodges of various Indian bands, 
of different tribes, while the Illinois, numbering 
several thousands, were encamped on the other 
side of the river. But La Salle soon found that, 
with the new governor, La Barre, inimical to him, 
he could get no supplies from Canada. The men 
whom he sent for goods were detained, and finally 
the Governor seized Fort Frontenac and put men 
in charge of it. 

La Salle had no resource but to appeal from 
the Governor's high-handed injustice to the King. 
He left Tonty in command of Fort St. Louis 
and departed for France. 



17 



257 



Chapter XIV 

LA SALLE AND THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 



Chapter XIV 



LA SALLE AND THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

La Salle leads an Expedition to seize the Mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. — A Series of Mishaps. — Landing at Matagorda Bay. 

— Fort St. Louis of Texas. — Seeking the Mississippi, La 
Salle explores the Interior of Texas. — Mounted Comanches. 

— La Salle starts out to go to Canada for Relief. — Inter- 
esting Experiences. — La Salle assassinated. — Tonty's He- 
roic Efforts to rescue him and his Party. — Supplement : 
The Founding of New Orleans. 

ON a day in February, 1685, a party 
landed from one of three vessels lying 
off the entrance of Matagorda Bay, 
on the coast of Texas. They were 
under the command of La Salle. What was this 
extraordinary man doing there ^ In accordance 
with the plan which had long filled his mind, of 
planting French forts and colonies in the valley 
of the Great River and giving its trade an outlet 
into the Gulf of Mexico, he had come to estab- 
lish a fort on the Mississippi. This, the first 
I part of his plan, was very rational, if only he 
had the vast resources needed for such an 
undertaking. 

261 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

But the second part was so crazy that we must 
suppose that his mind was beginning to give way. 
With a handful of Frenchmen and an army of 
fifteen thousand savages, which he professed to 
be able to muster and to march down the Missis- 
sippi, he had promised the King of France that 
he would conquer the northern province of 
Mexico, called New Biscay, and get possession of 
its valuable silver mines. 

Louis had cheerfully accepted this insane propo- 
sition — insane, if we consider the pitiful equip- 
ment that La Salle said would suffice, namely, two 
ships and two hundred men. Louis was indeed 
furiously jealous of the Spanish King's success in 
the New World and irritated by his arrogant 
treatment of the Gulf of Mexico as private prop- 
erty of Spain, — as completely a " closed sea " as 
if it had been a duck-pond in his palace yard. 
Moreover, there was war now between the two 
countries, and he would gladly seize an oppor- 
tunity of striking his rival a blow in what seemed 
an exposed part. Besides, the risk would be 
small. If La Salle failed, the loss would be 
chiefly his ; if he succeeded, a province of Mexico 
would be a shining jewel in the French crown. 

So here was La Salle, with an outfit corre- 
262 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

sponding with his mad scheme — but three 
ships, only one a man-of-war, the " Joly," one a 
little frigate, the " Belle," and one a transport, 
the " Aimable " ; for soldiers, the destined army 
of invasion, a parcel* of rapscallions raked up 
from the docks and the prisons ; for colonists 
some mechanics and laborers, priests and volun- 
teers, with the usual proportion of " broken 
gentlemen," some peasant families looking for 
homes in the New World, and even some 
wretched girls who expected to find husbands in 
the land of promise. This ill-assorted little mob 
to seize and colonize the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi and to wrest a province from Spain ! 

From the first everything had gone wrong. La 
Salle and the ship-captains, who could not endure 
his haughty manners, quarreled incessantly. A 
Spanish cruiser captured his fourth vessel, laden 
with indispensable supplies for the colony. Then 
he was seized with a dangerous fever ; and while 
the vessels waited at San Domingo for him to be 
well enough to resume the voyage, his villains 
roamed the island and rioted in debauchery. 

Its destination being the m.outh of the Missis- 
sippi, what was the expedition doing at Mata- 
gorda Bay, in Texas ? This was the result of 

263 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

another folly. Not a soul on board knew the 
navigation of the Gulf, so carefully had Spain 
guarded her secret. The pilots had heard much 
of the currents in those waters, and they made so 
excessive allowance for them that when land was 
sighted, instead of being, as they supposed, 
about Appalachee Bay, they were on the coast of 
Texas, probably about Galveston Bay. In the 
end it proved to be a fatal mistake, wrecking the 
enterprise. 

On New Year's day La Salle landed and found 
only a vast marshy plain. Clearly, this was not 
the mouth of the Great River. He returned on 
board, and the vessel stood westward along the 
coast, every eye on board strained to catch some 
indication of what they sought, whereas they were 
all the time sailing further from it. At one point 
where they stopped, some Indians, who doubtless 
were familiar with the sight of white men, swam 
out through the surf and came on board without 
any sign of fear. But, nobody knowing their 
language, nothing could be learned from them. 

After hovering for three weeks in sight of land, 
La Salle, perplexed beyond measure, but forced 
to decide because the captain of the man-of-war 
was impatient to land the men and to sail for 

264 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

France, announced that they were at one of the 
mouths of the Mississippi and ordered the people 
and stores put ashore. 

Scarcely were they landed, when a band of In- 
dians set upon some men at work and carried ofF 
some of them. La Salle immediately seized his 
arms, called to some of his followers, and started 
off in pursuit. Just as he was entering the In- 
dian village, the report of a cannon came from 
the bay. It frightened the savages so that they 
fell flat on the ground and gave up their prison- 
ers without difficulty. But a chill foreboding 
seized La Salle. He knew that the gun was a 
signal of disaster, and, looking back, he saw the 
" Aimable " furling her sails. Her captain, in 
violation of orders, and disregarding buoys which 
La Salle had put down, had undertaken to come 
in under sail and had ended by wrecking her. 
Soon she began to break up, and night fell upon 
the wretched colonists bivouacking on the shore, 
strewn with boxes and barrels saved from the 
wreck, while Indians swarmed on the beach, 
greedy for plunder, and needed to be kept off 
by a guard. 

What a situation, ludicrous, had it not been 
tragic! Instead of holding the key of the Mis- 

265 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

sissippi Valley, the expeditionists did not even 
know where they were. Instead of the fifteen 
thousand warriors who were expected to march 
with them to the conquest of New Biscay, the 
squalid savages in their neighborhood annoyed 
them in every possible way, set fire to the prairie 
when the wind blew toward them, stole their 
goods, ambushed a party that came in quest of 
the missing articles, and killed two of them. 

Next came sickness, due to using brackish 
water, carrying off five or six a day. When the 
captain of the little " Belle," the last remaining 
vessel — for the man-of-war had sailed for France 
— got drunk and wrecked her on a sand-bar, 
the situation was truly desperate. Nobody knew 
where they were, and the last means of getting 
away by water had perished. 

In the meantime La Salle had chosen a place 
for a temporary fort, on a river which the French 
called La Vache (Cow River), on account of the 
buffaloes in its vicinity, and which retains the 
name, in the Spanish form, Lavaca. 

La Salle returned from an exploration unsucess- 
ful. He had found nothing, learned nothing ; 
only, he knew now that he was not near the 
Mississippi. The summer had worn away, 

266 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

steadily filling the graveyard, and, with the 
coming of the autumn, he prepared for a more 
extensive exploration. On the last day of Octo- 
ber he started out with fifty men on his grand 
journey of exploration, leaving J outel, his faithful 
lieutenant, in command of the fort, which con- 
tained thirty-four persons, including three Re- 
collet friars and a number of women and girls. 

The winter passed not uncomfortably for the 
party in the fort. The surrounding prairie 
swarmed with game, buffaloes, deer, turkeys, 
ducks, geese, and plover. The river furnished 
an abundance of turtles, and the bay of oysters. 
Joutel gives a very entertaining account of his 
killing rattlesnakes, which his dog was wont to 
find, and of shooting alligators. The first time 
that he went buffalo-hunting, the animals were 
very numerous, but he did not seem to kill any. 
Every one that he fired at lumbered away, as if it 
were unhurt. After some time he found one 
dead, then others, and he learned that he had 
killed several. After their wont they had kept 
their feet while life lasted. Even the friars took 
a hand in buffalo-hunting. 

La Salle and his party, meanwhile, were roam- 
ing wearily from tribe to tribe, usually fighting 

267 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

their way, always seeking the Mississippi. At 
last they came to a large river which at first they 
mistook for it. Here La Salle built a stockade 
and left some of his men, of whose fate nothing 
was afterward heard. Then he set out to return 
to Fort St. Louis, as he called his little fort on 
Lavaca. One day in March he reappeared with 
his tattered and footsore followers, some of them 
carrying loads of buffalo-meat. 

Surely the condition of affairs was dismal in 
the extreme. More than a year gone, and as yet 
the Frenchmen did not even know where they 
were. The fierce heat of another summer was 
near. Still La Salle, with his matchless courage, 
so soon as he recovered from a fit of illness, 
formed a desperate resolve. He would start out 
again, find the Mississippi, ascend that river and 
the Illinois to Canada, and bring rehef to the 
fort. This time the party was composed of 
twenty men, some of them clad in deerskin, 
others in the garments of those who had died. 
On April 11 they started out. 

Months went by. Then, to the surprise of 
those in the fort, one evening La Salle re- 
appeared, followed by eight men of the twenty 
who had gone out with him. One had been lost, 

268 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

two had deserted, one had been seized by an alli- 
gator, and six had given out on the march and 
probably perished. The survivors had encoun- 
tered interesting experiences. They had crossed 
the Colorado on a raft. Nika, La Salle's favorite 
Shawanoe hunter, who had followed him to France 
and thence to Texas, had been bitten by a rattle- 
snake, but had recovered. Among the Cenis 
Indians, a branch of the Caddo family, which in- 
cludes the famed Pawnees, they met with the 
friendliest welcome and saw plenty of horses, 
silver lamps, swords, muskets, money, and other 
articles, all Spanish, which these people had 
obtained from the fierce Comanches, who had 
taken them in raids on the Mexican border. 
They also met some of the Comanches them- 
selves and were invited to join them in a foray 
into New Mexico. But La Salle had, necessarily, 
long since given up his mad scheme of conquest 
and was thinking only of extricating himself from 
his pitiable dilemma. 

This seems to have been the first meeting of 
Frenchmen with mounted Indians of the plains. 
The possession of horses, which had strayed or 
been stolen from Spanish settlements, had trans- 
formed these wild rovers from foot-travelers, such 
. 269 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

as Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado found them, 
having no other domestic animals than dogs, into 
matchless horsemen and the most dangerous 
brigands on the continent, capable of covering 
hundreds of miles in an incredibly short space of 
time. Splendid specimens of savage manhood, 
presenting the best type of the Shoshonee stock, 
they amply avenged the terror which the sight of 
mounted Spaniards at first struck into the hearts 
of the aborigines, by harrying the colonists and 
laying the border in blood and ashes, as they 
sometimes do to this day.-^ 

^ These matchless horsemen, probably unsurpassed in the world, 
are also great jockeys, passionately fond of horse-racing and deeply 
versed in all its tricks. The following laughable account of a race 
that he witnessed is given by Col. Dodge in his very entertaining 
book, "Our Wild Indians" : "A band of Comanches once 
camped near Fort Chadbourne, in Texas. Some of the officers 
were decidedly 'horsey,' owning blood horses whose relative 
speed was well known. The Comanche chief was bantered for a 
race, and, after several days of manoeuvring, a race was made 
against the third best horse of the garrison, distance four hundred 
yards. 

'• The Indians wagered robes and plunder of various kinds, to 
the value of sixty or seventy dollars, against money, flour, sugar, 
etc., to a like amount. At the appointed time the Indians 
' showed ^ a miserable sheep of a pony, with legs like churns ; a 
three-inch coat of rough hair stuck out all over the body ; and a 
general expression of neglect, helplessness, and patient suffering 
struck pity into the hearts of all beholders. The rider was a stal- 

270 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

From the Cenis villages, where they bought 
five horses, the Frenchmen went as far, perhaps, 
as the Sabine River, encamped there for two 
months, detained by La Salle's illness with fever, 
and then, on account of their weakened condition, 
returned to Fort St. Louis. 

wart buck of one hundred and seventy pounds, looking big and 
strong enough to carry the poor beast on his slioulders. He was 
armed with a huge club, with which, after the word was given, he 
belabored the miserable animal from start to finish. To the aston- 
ishment of all the whites, the Indian won by a neck. 

*' Another race was proposed by the officers, and, after much 
* dickering,' accepted by the Indians, against the next best horse 
of the garrison. The bets were doubled ; and in less than an hour 
the second race was run by the same pony, with the same apparent 
exertion and with exactly the same result. 

" The officers, thoroughly disgusted, proposed a third race and 
brought to the ground a magnificent Kentucky mare, of the true 
Lexington blood. The Indians accepted the race and not only 
doubled bets as before, but piled up everything they could raise, 
seemingly almost crazed with the excitement of their previous 
success. The riders mounted, and the word was given. Throw- 
ing away his club, the Indian rider gave a whoop, at which the 
sheep-like pony pricked up his ears and went away like the wind 
almost two feet to the mare's one. The last fifty yards of the 
course was run by the pony with the rider sitting face to his tail, 
making hideous grimaces and beckoning to the rider of the mare to 
come on. 

" It afterwards transpired that the old sheep was a trick and 
straight-race pony, celebrated among all the tribes of the south, 
and had lately won for his master six hundred ponies among the 
Kickapoos of the Indian Nation." 

271 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

A deeper pall of gloom settled upon the little 
band of exiles. They had now been two years 
on that forlorn spot, and still they had not even 
found their way out. From one hundred and 
eighty their number had dwindled to forty-five. 
Clearly, there was but one thing to be done. If 
anybody was to remain alive, the journey to 
Canada must be accomplished, at all costs. This 
time La Salle determined to take Joutel with him, 
leaving Barbier in command of the little party in 
the fort. 

The New Year, 1687, came, and a few days 
later, with sighs and tears, the parting took place 
which many felt was for all time, and the travelers 
went away in mournful silence, with their meagre 
outfit packed on the horses, leaving Barbier to 
hold the fort with his little band of twenty persons, 
including all the women and children and a few 
disabled men. 

We shall not attempt to trace closely the move- 
ments of the travelers. For more than two 
months they journeyed in a northeasterly direction. 
At the best, they were in wretched plight, with 
nothing for shoes but raw buffalo-hide, which 
hardened about the foot and held it in the grip of 
a vise. After a while they bought dressed deer- 

272 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

skin from the Indians and made themselves moc- 
casins. Rivers and streams they crossed, two or 
three at a time, in a boat made of buffalo-hide, 
while the horses swam after them. They met 
Indians almost daily and held friendly intercourse 
with them.-^ 

Once they saw a band of a hundred and fifty 
warriors attacking a herd of buffalo with lances, 
and a stirring sight it was. These warriors en- 
tertained the Europeans most handsomely. Says 
La Salle's brother, the priest Cavelier, " They 
took us straight to the cabin of their great chief 
or captain, where they first washed our hands, 
our heads, and our feet with warm water; after 
which they presented us boiled and roast meat to 
eat, and an unknown fish, cooked whole, that was 
six feet long, laid in a dish of its length. It was 
of a wonderful taste, and we preferred it to meat." 
Here the way-worn travelers were glad to buy 
thirty horses — enough to give every one of them 
a mount, and to carry their baggage besides — all 
for thirty knives, ten hatchets, and six dozen 
needles ! 

^ They learned from these Indians to handle skin-boats, or " bull- 
boats," such as we shall see were in constant use among the Man- 
dans of the upper Missouri. 

i8 273 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

In one of the villages they witnessed the catch' 
ing of an alligator twelve feet long on a large 
hook made of bone and baited with meat. The 
Indians amused themselves an entire day with 
torturing it. They would have been keenly dis- 
appointed, had they known how little this animal, 
so low in the scale of life as to be almost insen- 
sible to pain, suffered from their ingenious cruelty. 

The Colorado and the Trinity were reached. 
A deluge of rain kept them weather-bound for 
four or five days. It was a gloomy time. What 
added fuel to the flame was that La Salle had 
with him a young nephew, named Moranget, 
who presumed on his relation to the leader and 
behaved most overbearingly to the men. 

One day it chanced that some of the men were 
separated from the main body when Nika killed 
two buffaloes. They sent word to La Salle, in order 
that he might have the meat brought in on the 
horses. Accordingly, he dispatched his nephew, 
Moranget, with two other men, for that purpose. 
This was just the opportunity the malcontents 
desired. Besides, Moranget incensed them by 
flying into a passion because they had reserved 
certain portions of the meat for themselves, and 
by seizing the whole of it. They laid their plans 

274 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

and, in the dead of the night, murdered him, La 
Salle's servant Saget, and his faithful Indian, Nika. 

Now they had to choose between killing La 
Salle and being killed by him, as soon as he 
should learn the facts. They laid an ambush for 
him, and when he came in the morning to look 
after the missing men, they shot him dead. Then 
the murderers stripped his body, dragged it into 
the bushes, and left it to be torn by buzzards. 

Thus died, in the prime of his manhood, one 
who had done more than any other toward the 
opening of our continent. He had traversed 
regions where white men were almost unheard of. 
He had launched the first vessel that ever floated 
on the vast inland seas above Niagara Falls. He 
had established the French in the Illinois region, 
opening the way for the possession of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley. He had drawn hostile Indian 
tribes together into a league strong enough to 
resist the Long House. He had traveled thou- 
sands and thousands of miles on foot and by 
canoe. He had led the first party of white men 
from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. His 
foresight had grasped the commercial value of 
the Mississippi Valley, and, triumphing over 
enormous difficulties, he had opened the Great 

275 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

West to our race. And now all his greatness 
was come to this, to die in the wilderness by an 
assassin's hand ! 

After the death of the leader, a little party, 
among whom were Joutel and La Salle's brother, 
the friar Cavelier, after many strange experiences, 
finally made their way down the Arkansas River 
to the Mississippi. There, to their inexpressible 
joy, they found two of their countrymen who had 
been left there by Tonty. That brave man and 
loyal friend, when he received the news, by the 
way of France, of his former leader's disastrous 
landing, had at once, at his own expense, fitted 
out an expedition and led it down the Illinois 
to the mouth of the Mississippi. Of course, he 
did not find La Salle or any trace of him there. 
He had then returned to his post, leaving some 
of his men at the mouth of the Arkansas. These 
escorted the survivors of La Salle's party to 
Canada, whence they sailed to France, having 
made one of the most remarkable journeys on 
record. They arrived in Europe, the sole known 
survivors of the expedition that had left France 
three years before. 

Louis the Great, when he heard the news of 
the failure of the enterprise, took no steps to 

2^6 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

relieve the forlorn little band of exiles on the 
coast of Texas. Not so Tonty. That brave 
soul determined to rescue them, if possible. For 
the third time he voyaged down the Mississippi, 
turned up the Red River, and penetrated as far 
as the country of the Caddoes.* There he lost 
the most of his ammunition in crossing a river, 
his men mutinied and refused to go further, and 
he was compelled to turn back. On his way 
down the Red River he encountered a flood and 
traveled more than a hundred miles through 
country covered with water. The party slept on 
logs laid side by side and were reduced to eating 
their dogs. Few men who figure in our country's 
early story are more deserving of honorable re- 
membrance than this man with one hand and 
with the heart of a lion. 

The French King neglected the exiles in Texas, 
but the Spanish King did not. He ordered a 
force sent from Mexico, to destroy the nest of 
invaders. When the'Spanish soldiers arrived on 
the spot, not a human being was to be seen. 
The poor little fort was a ruin, and a few skele- 

1 These people, sometimes called the Pawnee family, were 
scattered, in various wandering bands, from eastern Texas as far 
north as the Missouri. 

^77 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

tons were all that remained of its former inmates. 
The Indians in the neighborhood told a story of 
a band of warriors who had entrapped the garri- 
son into opening the gates, on the plea of trading, 
and then had rushed in and massacred them. 

Thus ended, for the time, La Salle's brilliant 
scheme of colonizing Louisiana. 



Supplement to Chapter XIV 

The Executor of La Salle's Plan of Colonization. — First Expe- 
riences of the Settlers. — Bienville's Shrewdness in getting 
rid of the English. -New Orleans Founded.- Character of 
the Population. — Indian Wars. 

I A SALLE was dead, but his bright dream 
of France enthroned on the Missis- 
j sippi, holding in her hand the sceptre 
of the great West, was too vital to die. 
It was growing more and more into the con- 
sciousness of sea-going Europe, that the nation 
holding the mouth of the Great River would 
grasp the key to the undeveloped wealth of the 
Western World. So it was that when France 
stretched forth her hand to seize the coveted 
prize, she found rivals in the field, Spain and 

278 




The Murder of La Salle 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

Great Britain struggling for a foothold, Spain 
already planted at Pensacola, the English nosing 
about the mouth of the Mississippi. 

The man who was destined to achieve what 
La Salle had been hindered from accomplishing 
only by the blunder of his pilots and the jealousy 
of his associates, was Jean Baptiste LeMoyne de 
Bienville. 

He was of that fine French Canadian stock 
that had already produced Joliet, the brave ex- 
plorer, and he belonged to a family whose seven 
sons all won distinction, four of them dying in 
the service of their country. When he came on 
the enterprise in which he was destined to com- 
plete La Salle's unfinished work, he was a mid- 
shipman of twenty-two serving with his older 
brother, Iberville, who was winning renown as a 
brave and skilful naval captain. Though pos- 
sessing none of La Salle's brilliancy of genius, 
and never called on to make those heroic exer- 
tions or to exhibit that amazing fortitude which 
were so conspicuous in the case of the great 
explorer, he still exhibited qualities which well 
fitted him for the task that fell to him, and which 
earned for him the title of " Father of Louisiana." 

To us it may seem strange that the first reach- 
279 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

ing out of France toward the incredibly rich 
Mississippi Valley did not touch the valiey itself, 
but made its lodgment on a sandy bluff over- 
looking a bay in the territory of what is now the 
State of Mississippi. So it was, however, and 
the fact only shows how little was grasped the 
true meaning of La Salle's gigantic scheme. 

In January, 1699, fifteen years after the great 
Pathfinder had made his misguided landing in 
Texas, a small fleet from Brest was hovering 
about the mouth of Mobile River seeking a place 
for settlement. It was commanded by Pierre 
LeMoyne d'Iberville. With him were his two 
brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, and Father 
Anastase Douay, who had accompanied La Salle. 

One of the first spots which the Frenchmen 
visited bore evidences of a ghastly tragedy. So 
numerous were the human bones bleaching on 
the sandy soil that they called it Massacre Island 
(to-day Dauphin Island). It was surmised — 
and with some plausibility — that here had per- 
ished some portion of the ill-fated following of 
Pamphile de Narvaez. (See " Pioneer Spaniards 
in North America," p. 200.) 

Another island, farther to the west, chiefly 
impressed the visitors by the great number of^ 

280 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

animals, of a species new to them, which they 
found there. Isle des Chats they called it, and 
as " Cat Island " it is known to this day. Had 
the Frenchmen been naturalists, they would have 
seen that there was more of the bear than of the 
cat about this creature, for it was none other than 
our sly friend, the raccoon. 

Leaving his vessels at anchor near the mouth 
of Mobile River, Iberville, with his brother Bien- 
ville and Father Douay, went in search of the 
mouth of the Mississippi. They found it and 
ascended the river a considerable distance. What 
assured them that they really were on the Great 
River was that they received from the Bayagoulas 
a letter which Tonty had left with them for La 
Salle, when he made, in 1686, that heroic journey 
all the way from the Illinois country to the Gulf, 
in the vain effort to succor his chief. 

Another interesting relic which the explorers 
are said to have seen, was a coat of mail shown 
to them by the Indians near the Red River, as 
once having belonged to a Spaniard. Though 
nearly one hundred and sixty years had gone by 
since Hernando de Soto's famous expedition, it 
is by no means improbable that this was a genu- 
ine relic of that enterprise. Naturally, the In- 

281 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

dians would have highly prized and would have 
kept, as a precious trophy, such a reminder of 
their forefathers' heroic stand against the dastardly 
invaders. 

The appearance on the river of the two English 
vessels, whose captain frankly said that he was 
seeking a place for a settlement, was conclusive 
evidence that France was none too early in reach- 
ing out for the prize that others coveted. Bien- 
ville has the credit of getting rid of the Britons 
by telling the officer that he might easily judge 
how numerous and strong were his master's, the 
French King's, subjects, in that region, from see- 
ing them on the river in small boats — a piece 
of reasoning which was rather ingenious than in- 
genuous. It had its effect in sending away the 
Briton with " a flea in his ear." *' English 
Turn," the name given to a great bend in the 
stream some miles below New Orleans, keeps 
alive the memory of that piece of shrewdness. 
Not far distant, by the way, is the field where, in 
1 8 15, the British regulars, under Sir Edward 
Pakenham, received a disastrous defeat at the 
hands of Andrew Jackson and his American 
riflemen. 

Iberville planted his first settlement at Biloxi, 
282 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

on Mississippi Sound. Other French posts were 
shortly afterward established on Cat Island, 
Dauphin Island, which is at the mouth of Mobile 
Bay, and at Mobile. A little later Bienville built a 
fort fifty-four miles above the mouth of the Great 
River, and he early began to insist that the future 
of the colony lay on its banks, not on the shores 
and sandy islands of the Gulf. But the time 
had not yet come when his ideas would prevail. 
The wretched colony must first go through a 
dismal experience of languishing, in consequence 
of which the seat of government was removed to 
Mobile, and of actual famine. 

At last, in 171 8, Bienville, who by the death 
of his brother had succeeded to the direction of 
affairs, with twenty-five convicts from France and 
as many carpenters and some voyageurs from the 
Illinois River, founded the city of New Orleans. 

At the first the outlook was far from hopeful. 
The site was but a few feet above the sea-level 
and was subject to constant inundation. Most 
unfavorable reports went back to Mobile, which 
for five years longer remained the seat of govern- 
ment. The population, too, was rude and law- 
less, being made up of trappers, redemptioners 
having a period of years to serve, transported fe- 

283 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

males, inmates of the House of Correction, Choc- 
taw squaws, and negro slave women — all, as an 
old writer says, "without religion, without justice, 
without discipline, without order, without police." 

Bienville, however, held firmly to his purpose 
and, in 1723, procured the royal permission to 
transfer the seat of government from Mobile to 
the new settlement on the banks of the Great 
River. Thus, at last, was La Salle's prophetic 
dream realized. France had become awake to 
the importance of concentrating her strength where 
it could be effective, rather than frittering it away 
on the shores of the Gulf. 

One of the most striking evidences of the warm 
interest which the King felt in the colony was his 
sending out, in 1728, a number of decent girls, 
each with a trunk filled with linen and clothing 
(from which they were called jilles a la cassette^ or 
girls with a chest), who were to be disposed of 
under the direction of the Ursuline nuns, in mar- 
riage to the colonists. Other consignments fol- 
lowed ; and the homes thus established soon gave 
to the population of the city a more quiet and 
orderly character. 

Through various experiences, chiefly disastrous 
wars with the Natchez, that remarkable people 

284 




Le Moyne de Bienville 



THE FOUNDING OF LOUISIANA 

whom La Salle visited on his great exploration, 
and whom the French finally broke up and scat- 
tered, and with the Chickasaws in Mississippi, 
that hardy breed of warriors who had fought Soto 
so fiercely, and who now sent the Frenchmen 
back discomfited, Bienville in his later years lost 
much of his earlier prestige. But the fact remains 
that it was he who grasped the meaning of La 
Salle's plan, he who founded New Orleans, and 
he who guided the struggling colony through its 
perilous infancy. He well earned his title of 
" Father of Louisiana." 



285 



Chapter XV 

FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 



Chapter XV 

FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

His Birth and Early Experiences. — His Description of Niagara 
Falls. — His Great Fraud. — His Real Achievement. — Cap- 
tured by the Sioux, — Given to a Master. — Superstitious 
Fears of the Indians. — Goes with a Hunting Party. — Sees 
and names the Falls of St. Anthony. — Various Adventures. 
— Rescued and Freed. 

WE come now to tell the story of a 
man who was heither great nor good, 
but was a most picturesque and en- 
tertaining scamp, and who withal 
deserves some small place among the Pathfinders. 
Imagine a burly friar, in robe of rough gray 
frieze, his head covered by a pointed hood, his 
otherwise bare feet protected by sandals, in his 
hand a stout cudgel, shuffling along on snow-shoes 
and dragging his scanty possessions on a sled, or, 
if it was summer, paddling his canoe from one 
lonely cabin to another, celebrating mass wher- 
ever he could get together a half-dozen people, 
telling them the gossip of the river, eating a ro- 
bust meal, then pushing on to repeat the experi- 
^9 289 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

ence elsewhere, and you will have a good picture 
of Father Louis Hennepin, a man whose books 
describing his travels, real or imaginary, had, in 
their day, the widest popularity in Europe. 
Though he was an unconscionable braggart, and 
though he had no scruples about falsifying facts, 
yet, as the first person to publish an account of 
the Falls of Niagara, and as the discoverer and 
namer of the Falls of St. Anthony, he is fairly 
entitled to a place in a collection like this. 

He was born in Belgium, about 1640, and in 
due time joined the Franciscan monks. When 
he tells us that he was so passionately fond of 
tales of adventure that he often skulked behind 
tavern-doors, though he was sickened by the 
tobacco smoke, eagerly hanging on the words of 
the old tars spinning yarns to each other, we do 
not wonder at finding him on his way to the land 
of wonders, the New World, making the voyage 
in company with La Salle. The wilderness, full 
of hardships and haunted by treacherous savages 
though it was, had a fascination for him, and we 
soon find him serving as an itinerant missionary 
on the frontier. 

His experience in this work recommended him 
for appointment as missionary at that loneliest of 

290 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

outposts, La Salle's Fort Frontenac. When La 
Salle returned successful from his efforts to in- 
terest the court in his gigantic scheme of explor- 
ation. Father Hennepin was selected to accompany 
him as the representative of the Church. In prep- 
aration for the great undertaking, he was sent 
ahead with La Motte, an officer in La Salle's 
service, to Fort Frontenac, whence they pro- 
ceeded in a small sailing vessel to Niagara River, 
under orders to build a fort that was intended to 
be a link in the chain of posts that La Salle 
purposed establishing. 

Niagara Falls — "a vast and prodigious Ca- 
dence of Water," he calls it — made a deep im- 
pression on the Father, and he proceeded to write 
in his journal this description, which, when it 
was printed, was the first published account of 
the cataract : " This wonderful Downfall is com- 
pounded of two great Cross-streams|of Water, and 
two Falls, with an Isle sloping along the middle of 
it. The Waters which fall from this vast height 
do foam and boil after the most hideous Manner 
imaginable, making an outrageous Noise, more 
terrible than that of Thunder ; for when the wind 
blows from off the South, their dismal roaring 
may be heard above fifteen Leagues off." 

291 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

The Seneca Indians, who regarded the Niagara 
River as belonging to themselves, were jealous 
of the intruders and raised so strong objections 
to the building of a fort, that La Motte and 
Hennepin made a journey to their chief town, 
in the hope of overcoming their opposition. Here 
they met with a hospitable reception from the 
savages, who, Hennepin says, "wash'd our Feet, 
which afterwards they rubb'd over with the Oil 
of Bears." They found here two faithful Jesuit 
missionaries — members of an order, by the way, 
not especially friendly to the one to which Hen- 
nepin belonged, the Franciscans — and, at their 
invitation, the father preached to the Indians. 

Next came a council with the elders of the 
tribe. These made a great impression on Hen- 
nepin, who writes, " The Senators of Venice do 
not appear with a graver countenance, and per- 
haps don't speak with more Majesty and Solidity 
than those ancient Iroquese."-^ 

With many cunning arguments and specious 
reasons, the white men stated their case through 
their interpreter, making much of the point that 
the new enterprise would open an easier trade- 

1 Hennepin's language In the passages which have been quoted 
is given as it appears in an old English translation. 

292 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

route, by which goods could be brought and 
sold to the natives at rates lower than those of 
the Dutch, with whom these people were in the 
habit of dealing at Fort Orange (Albany). 

The wary old warriors accepted the presents 
offered them, listened to the speeches, and re- 
served their decision until the next day, when 
they plainly showed that they did not put much 
faith in the assurances of their white brethren. 
In the end, La Motte and Hennepin went away 
disappointed. La Salle, however, on his arrival, 
with his extraordinary skill in dealing with In- 
dians, secured the concessions he needed and 
went on with his building and the subsequent 
exploration. 

It would be superfluous to repeat the story of 
the expedition, down to the building of Fort 
Crevecceur. It is not until this point that the 
journal of Father Hennepin becomes an inde- 
pendent narrative. 

From Fort Crevecoeur La Salle dispatched the 
father, with two excellent men, Accau and Du 
Gay, to follow the Illinois River to its mouth 
and, on reaching the Mississippi, to turn north- 
ward and explore its upper waters. Accau, who 
was an experienced voyageur (French for trav- 

293 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

eler ; a term applied to Canadians who traversed 
the forests and lakes, bartering with the Indians), 
was the real head of the expedition. But Hen- 
nepin, according to his wont, even when he was 
in company with so great a genius as La Salle, 
in his account always gives himself the foremost 
place. 

If Father Hennepin had published no other 
writings than his account of the journey on the 
Upper Mississippi, his reputation would be that 
of a traveler who left a most interesting record of 
his experiences, embellished with fanciful addi- 
tions — a not uncommon practice, in those days 
— but in the main reliable. Unfortunately for 
his good name, he did something more which 
justly put such a blot upon his character that 
many persons refused to believe his story in any 
of its particulars. We must give a passing no- 
tice to this daring performance. 

Fourteen years after this expedition, when 
La Salle was dead, and with the evident purpose 
of robbing him of his just fame as the first white 
man who explored the Mississippi all the way to 
the Gulf, Hennepin for the first time put forth 
the astonishing statement that he and his two 
companions, on reaching the Great River, turned 

294 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

south and followed its course all the way to the 
ocean, after which they ascended it and explored 
its upper waters — a truly marvelous achievement, 
if it were true, for three lonely men voyaging on 
an unknown stream among fierce savages. 

Even at the time of its publication, there were 
those who disallowed this amazing claim. " Why 
has he so long kept silence about this heroic 
feat ? " they naturally asked. Hennepin had a 
ready answer: he was afraid of the wrath of 
La Salle, who would have been furious if any 
doubt had been cast upon his claim of being the 
first explorer. 

How, then, do we know the story to be false ? 
In several ways. First, and chiefly, because what 
Hennepin alleged that he had done was simply 
impossible. In his first book, which was pub- 
lished, let us remember, during La Salle's life- 
time, Hennepin said that he left the mouth of 
the Illinois on March 12, and that he was 
captured by the Sioux, near the mouth of the 
Wisconsin, five hundred miles above, on April 
II. This looks reasonable, and no doubt it 
was true. But, in the second story, published 
fourteen years later, he stated that in that same 
interval of time he had descended the Mississippi 

295 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

to the Gulf, then, returning, had traced its course 
as far as the mouth of the Wisconsin. One 
month to accomplish a distance of 3,260 miles ! 
An average of over one hundred miles a day for 
three men paddling a canoe, up-stream for the 
greater part of the distance ! Surely, we may 
dismiss the whole story as a colossal falsehood. 
But if he did not go below the mouth of the 
Illinois, how did Hennepin become possessed of 
the information which he gives in his usual inter- 
esting way about the places and peoples all the 
way down the river to the Gulf? His descrip- 
tions have all the appearance of truth. He 
" cribbed " them. We are able to put our finger 
on a source from which he drew without stint. It 
will be remembered that Father Membre accom- 
panied La Salle on his descent of the Mississippi, 
in 168 1. He kept a journal of their experiences. 
This journal was afterward published by another 
friar, Le Clerc, but was suppressed by the French 
government, because it gave offence to the 
Jesuits. A few copies, however, are in existence 
to this day. Those who have examined one of 
these say that Membre's journal is the original of 
Hennepin's stolen narrative, sometimes whole 
pages agreeing word for word. Hennepin seems 

296 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

to have taken it bodily, with a few necessary 
alterations, such as would make himself, not La 
Salle, the hero of the expedition. This pirated 
account, written in Hennepin's picturesque style, 
met with great success in Europe and was trans- 
lated into several languages. We are reminded 
of the sensation which was made by Amerigo 
Vespucci's fanciful tales of the New World. 
(See "Pioneer Spaniards in North America," 
p. 44.) 

One more question. If Hennepin lied in say- 
ing that he descended the Great River, how do 
we know that he really ascended it ? Because this 
part of his story is confirmed by an independent 
witness. The famous trader and leader of fur- 
traders, Du Lhut, testified that he found Henne- 
pin and his two companions prisoners among the 
Sioux and rescued them, precisely as we shall find 
Hennepin relating in his story of the expedition. 

We shall, therefore, reject the later-published 
account of the imaginary journey down the Mis- 
sissippi and confine our attention to the probably 
authentic story of his adventures on the upper 
waters, 

Hennepin and his two associates followed the 
Illinois to its mouth and then turned their canoe 

297 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

toward the head-waters of the Great River. For 
a time all went well. Game was abundant, and 
the travelers fared sumptuously on buffalo, deer, 
turkeys, and fish. Suddenly they encountered a 
war-party of Sioux in a number of canoes. These 
fierce rovers, members of the great Dakota family, 
whose range extended westward a thousand miles 
from the Mississippi, enjoyed a reputation which 
caused them to be called " the Iroquois of the 
West." Immediately they surrounded the 
Frenchmen with a hideous clamor. Hennepin 
held up the calumet ; but one of them snatched 
it from him. Then he offered some fine Mar- 
tinique tobacco, which somewhat mollified them. 
He also gave them two turkeys which were in the 
canoe. But, for all this, it was evident that the 
Sioux were about to treat their prisoners with 
their wonted ferocity. In fact, one of the war- 
riors signified to the friar in dumb show that he 
was to be brained with a war-club. On the spot 
he hastened to the canoe and returned loaded 
with presents which he threw down before them. 
This had the effect of so far softening the savage 
breasts that the prisoners were given food and 
were allowed to rest in quiet that night. 

In quiet, indeed, but not sleeping, we may be 
298 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

sure, for can a more trying situation be imagined 
than that of knowing that one's life or death is 
under debate, while one has not a chance to say a 
single word of defence or argument ? Some of 
the Indians, they gathered, favored killing them 
on the spot and taking their goods. Others 
contended that when they all wished to attract 
French traders to come into their country and 
bring guns, blankets, and other such commodi- 
ties, it would be unwise to discourage them by 
killing these prisoners. 

Imagine the Frenchmen's joy, when, in the 
early morning, a young warrior in full paint came 
to them, asked for the pipe which had previously 
been rejected, filled and smoked it, and then 
passed it to his companions to do the same. 
This pipe was the famous calumet, which we 
have seen to be so efficacious in the case of Joliet 
and Marquette. Smoking it was an intimation 
to the Frenchmen that there was to be peace. 
They were also informed that they would be 
taken by the Sioux to their village. 

Shortly afterward the friar had a comical ex- 
perience. When he took out his breviary and 
began to read his morning devotions in a low 
tone, the savages gathered around him with looks 

299 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

of terror and frantically signed to him to put 
away the book. They mistook it for some kind 
of a fetish, that is, an object inhabited by a power- 
ful spirit, and his muttering they supposed to be 
a magic incantation. Then a happy thought 
struck him. He began to sing the service in a 
loud and cheerful voice. This delighted the sav-, 
ages, who fancied that the book was teaching him 
to sing for their entertainment. 

Now the journey up the river began. On the 
whole, the Frenchmen fared tolerably well. 
They took care always to sleep near the young 
warrior who had been the first to smoke the 
peace-pipe, and whom they regarded as their 
protector. The hostile party among the Indians 
was headed by a wily old fellow who frequently 
threw the prisoners into a panic by frenzied ap- 
peals to the warriors to let him avenge on the 
white men the death of his son, who had been 
killed by the Miamis. The Frenchmen invaria- 
bly met this excitement by fresh gifts. Thus, 
while they were not openly robbed, they were 
gradually relieved of their earthly possessions by 
a sort of primitive blackmail. 

Day after day the paddles plied by sinewy 
arms drove the canoes up the stream. A lake 

300 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

was passed, which later was called Lake Pepin, 
in honor of one of a party of their countrymen 
whom they met a short time afterward.^ On the 
nineteenth day after their capture, the prisoners 
landed, along with their masters, on the spot 
where St. Paul now stands. 

The three Frenchmen's troubles now began in 
real earnest. First they must see their canoe 
broken to pieces, to prevent their escape, then 
the remainder of their goods divided. After this 
their captors started out for their abodes, which 
lay to the north, near the lake now called Mille 

1 Jonathan Carver, who journeyed up the river in 1766, was the 
earliest traveler who made mention of ancient monuments in this 
region. He says that a few miles below Lake Pepin his attention 
was attracted by an elevation which had the appearance of an in- 
trenchment. He had served in the recent war between Great Britain 
and France and had an eye to such matters. He says, " Notwith- 
standing it was now covered with grass, I could plainly discern that 
it had once been a breast-work of about four feet in height, extending 
the best part of a mile and sufficiently capacious to cover five thousand 
men." It was semi-circular in form, and its wings rested on the 
river, which covered the rear. His surmise that it was built for the 
purpose of defence is undoubtedly correct. He wonders how such 
a work could exist in a country inhabited by "untutored Indians" 
who had no military knowledge beyond drawing a bow. Since his 
time we have gained far more knowledge of the aborigines, and it is 
ascertained beyond reasonable question that, at one period, they 
reared extensive earth-works, probably for the permanent protection 
of their villages. 

301 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Lacs. It was a hard experience for the French- 
men to tramp with these athletic savages, wading 
ponds and marshes glazed with ice and swim- 
ming ice-cold streams. " Our Legs," says Hen- 
nepin, " were all over Blood, being cut by the 
Ice." Seeing the friar inclined to lag, the In- 
dians took a novel method of quickening his 
pace. They set fire to the grass behind him and 
then, taking him by the hands, they ran forward 
with him. He was nearly spent when, after five 
days of exhausting travel, they reached the 
homes of the Sioux. 

Entering the village, Hennepin saw a sight 
that curdled his blood. Stakes, with bundles of 
straws attached to them seemed in readiness for 
burning himself and his comrades. 

Imagine their amazement when, instead of 
being roasted, they were taken into a lodge and 
treated to a kind of whortle-berry pudding a la 
sauvage ! 

The next matter of interest was a noisy wrangle 
among the warriors as to the distribution of the 
prisoners. To his great terror, Hennepin was 
assigned to Aquipagetin, the wily old villain who 
had insisted on the death of the Frenchmen and 
had persistently blackmailed them. " Surely now 

302 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

my time has come," the friar said to himself. In- 
stead, to his great surprise, he was immediately 
adopted by his new master as a son, to replace 
the one whom the Miamis had lately killed, a 
procedure quite in accordance with Indian custom. 
Hennepin thus found himself separated from his 
two countrymen, who had other masters, much to 
the relief of Accau, who heartily hated him. 

The friar was now conducted by his adopted 
father to his lodge, which stood on an island in a 
lake, was introduced as his son to some six or 
seven of his wives, was given a platter of fish and 
a buffalo-robe, and altogether was treated quite as 
a member of the family. 

Now he had a period of rest in the Sioux village. 
The Indians subjected him, greatly to his advan- 
tage, to a treatment such as seems to have been in 
very general use on this continent and to have 
been the most rational feature of Indian medical 
practice, which relied mainly on charms and in- 
cantations. It was administered by placing the 
patient in a tightly closed lodge and pouring water 
on heated stones, thus producing a dense vapor 
which induced copious sweating, after which he 
was vigorously rubbed. 

The Sioux had a certain respect for him, on 

303 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

account of magic powers which he was supposed 
to possess, and his pocket-compass inspired them 
with unbounded awe. On his side, he made him- 
self useful in various ways, such as shaving the 
children's heads and bleeding the sick. The 
children had good reason to be thankful for 
having the friar for their barber, since the native 
method, he says, was " by burning off the Hair 
with flat Stones, which they heat red-hot in 
the Fire." 

" Many a melancholy Day," says Hennepin, 
" did I pass among these Savages." His coarse, 
filthy food was often of the scantiest, and his work, 
which he was compelled to do with squaws and 
slaves — for, of course, no warrior would stoop 
to labor — was of the hardest. Besides his use- 
ful services, one thing that helped greatly to keep 
him alive was the superstition of his masters. 
One of his belongings inspired them with whole- 
some dread. " I had," he says, " an Iron Pot 
about three foot round, which had the Figure of a 
Lion on it, which during our Voyage served us to 
bake our Victuals in. This Pot the Barbarians 
durst never so much as touch, without covering 
their Hands first in something of Castor-Skin. 
And so great a Terror was it to the women, 

304 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

that they durst not come or sleep in the 
Cabin where it was. They thought that there 
was a Spirit hid within, that would certainly kill 
them." 

At length the time came for the Indians to go 
on their annual hunt, and they took Hennepin 
along. His countrymen were also of the party, 
and thus he was again thrown with them. The 
friar gives this indignant account of their outfit : 
" Our whole Equipage consisted of fifteen or 
twenty Charges of Powder, a Fusil [gun], a little 
sorry Earthen Pot, which the Barbarians gave us, 
a knife between us both, and a Garment of Castor 
[beaver]. Thus we were equipped for a voyage of 
250 Leagues." 

The whole band, some two hundred and fifteen 
in number, descended Rum River, the outlet of 
Mille Lacs, and encamped opposite its mouth, on 
the bank of the Mississippi. Food was scarce. 
The whole camp was on short rations, and the 
three Frenchmen could get little to eat but unripe 
berries. 

This condition of things was scarcely endurable, 

and Hennepin was happy in securing permission 

from the head chief, who always acted in a very 

friendly manner, to go with his countrymen to 

20 305 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

the mouth of the Wisconsin, where he said that 
he had an appointment to meet some French 
traders who were coming thither with goods — 
a piece of pure invention which, however, served 
its purpose very well. Accau refused to go, 
preferring the savage life to traveling with the 
friar. But Du Gay gladly joined him, and 
the two set off in a small canoe that had been 
given them. They went swiftly down the river, 
and soon came to a famous cataract, between 
the sites of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which 
Hennepin called the Falls of St. Anthony, in 
honor of the saint whom he particularly rever- 
enced, St. Anthony of Padua. The name remains 
to this day and keeps alive the memory of the 
eccentric friar.^ 

1 Jonathan Carver, who visited the Falls about a hundred years 
after Hennepin, and from whose works the accompanying illustra- 
tion is taken, writes thus : " At a little distance below the falls 
stands a small island, of about an acre and a half, on which grow a 
great number of oak-trees, every branch of which, able to support 
the weight, was full of eagles' nests." These birds, he says, re- 
sort to this place in so great numbers because of its security, 
" their retreat being guarded by the Rapids, which the Indians 
never attempt to pass," and because of the abundant supply of food 
furnished by fish and animals "dashed to pieces by the falls and 
driven on the adjacent shore." 

About thirty miles below the Falls, he says, he visited a re- 
markable cave, called by the Indians Wakon-teebe, that is, the 

306 



FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

We shall not follow the travelers through 
their wanderings and adventures. Once, when 
they had been on very scant fare for several days, 
they were almost trampled by a herd of buffalo 
rushing down the bank to cross the river. Du 
Gay shot a young cow, and they feasted so boun- 
tifully that they were taken ill and could not 
travel for two days. In the meantime the 
weather was warm, their meat spoiled, and they 
were soon again nearly famished, depending on 
catfish and an occasional turtle. Hennepin thus 
describes one of their encounters : " I shewed 
Picard [Du Gay] a huge Serpent, as big as a 
Man's Leg, and seven or eight Foot long. She 
was working herself insensibly up a steep craggy 
Rock, to get at the Swallows Nests which are 
there in great Numbers. We pelted her so long 
with Stones, till at length she fell into the River. 
Her Tongue, which was in form of a Lance, was 
of an extraordinary Length, and her Hiss might 
be heard a great way." 

At last the two Frenchmen joined a band of 
hunters and among them found our friend Accau. 

Dwelling of the Great Spirit. Within it he found "many Indian 
hieroglyphicks which appeared very ancient." Near it was a 
burying-place of the Sioux. 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

The hunt was very successful. But Hennepin's 
attention was drawn in another direction by a 
strange story of five " Spirits," that is to say, 
Europeans, who were in the neighborhood. A 
few days later he met them at a little distance be- 
low the Falls of St. Anthony. 

The leader of the party was one of the most 
notable men among the early pioneers. His 
name was Daniel Greysolon Du Lhut, or Du 
Luth. He was leagued with Count Frontenac 
and some others in the fur-trade and was equally 
noted for his success in that line of business, for 
his coolness and skill in managing Indians and 
rough coureurs de hois^ and for his achievements 
as an explorer. He had come to the head of 
Lake Superior, where a city perpetuates his name, 
and thence had crossed to one of the tributaries 
of the Mississippi, when he heard of the three 
Frenchmen and came to meet them. The en- 
counter was a joyful one on both sides, especially 
for the prisoners, whose release Du Lhut secured 
by gifts to the Sioux. 

The eight Frenchmen now accompanied the 
Sioux back to Mille Lacs and were treated with 
great honor. Then they started east and, in 
due time, reached the Jesuit missions at Green 

308 




o 

X 
H 






FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN 

Bay. And here we take leave of Father 
Hennepin.* 

1 Hennepin relates that at the Falls of St. Anthony two of the 
men, to the great indignation of Du Lhut when he learned of it, 
stole two buffalo-robes which were hung on trees as offerings to the 
Great Spirit. Striking natural objects seem to have been regarded 
by the Indians as special manifestations of divinity. It is an in- 
teresting confirmation, that Jonathan Carver relates that, at the 
same place, a young warrior who accompanied him threw into the 
stream his pipe, his tobacco, his bracelets, his neck ornaments, in 
short, everything of value about him, all the while smiting his 
breast and crying aloud to the Great Spirit for his blessing. 



309 



Chapter XVI 



THE VERENDRYES DISCOVER THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS 



Chapter XVI 



THE VERENDRYES DISCOVER THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS 

V^rendrye's Experience as a Fur-trader. — As a Soldier. — He 
returns to the Forests. — His Plan for reaching the Pacific. 
— Tremendous Difficulties in his Way. — He reaches the 
Mandans. — His Sons discover the Rocky Mountains. — 
Alexander Mackenzie follows the Mackenzie River to the 
Arctic Ocean. — He achieves a Passage over the Mountains 
to the Pacific. — Note on Mandan Indians. — Mah-to-toh-pa's 
Vengeance. — Singular Dwellings of the Mandans. — Their 
Bloody Ordeal. — Skin-boats. — Catlin's Fanciful Theory. 

WE have seen how the dream of a short 
route to China and the Indies in- 
spired a long line of adventurous 
explorers. At the first it was hoped 
that the Mississippi afforded such a passage. 
When it was known beyond all doubt that the 
Great River flows into the Gulf, not the " Western 
Sea," longing eyes were turned toward the western 
part of the continent, in the hope that some stream 
would be found flowing into the Pacific which 
would carry the keels of commerce Indiaward. 
The huge barrier of the Rocky Mountains was 

313 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

not known, and it was only in the effort to reach 
the Pacific by water that they were discovered. 

So important was the desired route considered 
that, in 1720, the French King sent out the noted 
historian of New France, Father Charlevoix, to 
explore westward and discover a way to the Pa- 
cific. He recommended two plans, either to fol- 
low the Missouri River to its head-waters or to 
push a chain of trading-posts gradually westward 
until the continent should be crossed. The 
former plan was the one actually carried out, 
eighty-three years later, by the famous Lewis and 
Clark expedition, which crossed the Rockies and 
followed the Columbia River to the ocean. The 
second plan was the easier and less expensive, and 
it was the earlier to be tried. Still several years 
elapsed before the effort was made. 

The hardy adventurer was Pierre Gaultier de 
Varennes de la Verendrye, son of the Governor of 
Three Rivers. Early experience as a fur-trader 
taught him to know the Indians and the hard life 
of the northern forests. Then came the war of 
the Spanish Succession, and, a loyal French sub- 
ject, he left his fur-trade, hastened to Europe, 
asked to serve the King, and was given a com- 
mission as a lieutenant. The famous field of 

314 



THE VERENDRYES 

Malplaquet came near to witnessing the end of his 
career. He lay on it for dead, gashed with the 
sabre and pierced with bullets. Still he recov- 
ered, returned to New France, and plunged again 
into the woods as a trader. 

Being placed in command of the French out- 
post on Lake Nipigon, where he also carried on 
a brisk trade, he heard many a tale from Indians 
who came with furs. One of these stories fired 
his imagination. It was of a great river flowing 
westward out of a lake into water in which there 
was a tide. Then the Indian drew a rough map 
on birch bark, a copy of which is still in existence. 
Could this be the long-desired route to the Pa- 
cific ^ He hoped it and was resolved to ascer- 
tain the truth. But first he must get leave and 
an outfit. Having made the long and dangerous 
journey in his birch-bark canoe, that is, gone 
from Lake Nipigon into Lake Superior, traversed 
the entire length of the lakes, and then descended 
the St. Lawrence to Quebec, he laid before the 
French governor, Beauharnais, his plan for reach- 
ing the Pacific by the net-work of lakes and rivers 
north and west of Lake Superior. The Gov- 
ernor approved, but Verendrye, applying to the 
King for men and means, got nothing but a grant 

315 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

of the monopoly of the fur-trade north and west of 
Lake Superior. He must raise the money him- 
self. With difficulty and at exorbitant rates of 
interest, he obtained advances from Quebec mer- 
chants and set out, June 8, 1731, with his three 
sons and a nephew, Lajemeraye. At the close 
of the season he built his first fort, St. Pierre, on 
Rainy River. The next year he established his 
second fort, St. Charles, on the southwest shore 
of the Lake of the Woods. 

Terribly embarrassed by lack of money, he re- 
turned to Quebec and represented his deplorable 
situation. The Governor reported it to the King, 
but could get no more from him than the renewal 
of the fur-trade monopoly. Undaunted, Veren- 
drye persisted, though obliged to suspend explo- 
ration and devote himself for a while to trading, 
in order to secure money. There was enough to 
dishearten a man of less than heroic stuff. In 
1736, his eldest son, with a Jesuit priest and 
twenty others, was surprised and massacred by 
the Sioux on an island in the Lake of the Woods. 
Also he was harassed by creditors and compelled 
repeatedly to make the long and tedious journey 
to Montreal. In spite of all these mishaps, he 
pushed his posts gradually westward and by 1738 

316 



THE VERENDRYES 

he had established six, viz., St. Pierre, on Rainy 
Lake ; St. Charles, on the Lake of the Woods ; 
Maurepas at the mouth of the Winnipeg River; 
Bourbon on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg ; 
La Reine on Assiniboine River ; and Dauphin 
on Lake Manitoba. 

In 1738 he made a bold push for the Pacific, 
with fifty persons, French and Indians. After 
many devious wanderings, seeking a band that 
could conduct him to the Western Ocean, he 
reached the Mandans, on the upper Missouri, the 
singularly interesting people among whom Lewis 
and Clark spent the winter sixty-six years later. 
But, having been robbed of the presents which he 
had provided, he was unable to get a guide to lead 
him further and was obliged to return. The 
journey was made in midwinter and was full of 
frightful hardships. 

His eldest surviving son, Pierre de la Veren- 
drye, full of his father's spirit, devoted himself to 
the same quest. He had with him his brother 
and two other men. They started from Fort La 
Reine, reached the Mandans, and pushed on to 
the West. All through the summer, autumn, and 
early winter they toiled on, going hither and yon, 
beguiled by the usual fairy-tales of tribesmen, 

317 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

At last, on New Year's day, 1743, two hundred 
and fifty years after the Discovery, doubtless first 
of all white men, they saw the Rocky Mountains 
from the east. This probably was the Big Horn 
Range, one hundred and twenty miles east of the 
Yellowstone Park. Finding this tremendous ob- 
stacle across their path to the Pacific, they turned 
back. On July 12 they reached La Prairie, to 
the great joy of their father, who had given them 
up for lost. 

A later Governor of Canada not only ignored 
the heroic services of the Verendryes, but seized 
their goods, turned over their posts to another, 
and reduced them to poverty. 

It was a long time before their work was taken 
up, and it remained for a man of another race to 
accomplish what they had so bravely striven for. 
Alexander Mackenzie, a Scotch Highlander by 
birth, was an energetic young agent of the Mon- 
treal Company in the Athabasca region. He 
determined to undertake certain explorations. In 
June, 1789, he set out from Fort Chippewyan, on 
the south shore of Lake Athabasca, with four 
birch canoes and a party of white men and several 
Indians, including a guide and interpreter. Going 
down Snake River, the explorers reached Great 

318 



THE VERENDRYES 

Slave Lake, then entered a heretofore unknown 
river, the one which now bears the name of its 
discoverer, and followed it until, on July 12, 
they sighted the Arctic Ocean, filled with ice- 
floes, with spouting whales between. 

In October, 1792, he set out, determined this 
time to reach the Pacific Ocean. He left Fort 
Chippewyan, skirted the lake to Slave River, 
then ascended its southwest tributary, Peace 
River. He wintered on this stream in a trading- 
house which he had sent an advance party to 
build, employed in hunting and trading. In 
May, having sent back a large cargo of furs to 
Fort Chippewyan, he started up the river with a 
party of seven white men and two Indians. The 
voyagers traveled in a birch canoe twenty-five 
feet long, " but so light that two men could carry 
her on a good road three or four miles without 
resting." " In this slender vessel," he says, "we 
shipped provisions, goods for presents, arms, am- 
munition, and baggage, to the weight of thirty 
thousand pounds, and an equipage of ten people." 

The difficulties and dangers were tremendous. 
Paddling and pushing and poling up the rocky 
bed of a swift stream abounding in rapids, they 
made slow progress. More than once the canoe 

319 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

was broken. Portages were often necessary. 
Again and again the crew, exhausted and their 
clothing in tatters, sullenly insisted that there was 
no choice but to turn back. But Mackenzie was 
a man of indomitable courage and all the persist- 
ency of the Scotch race. He had already shown 
this quality by taking the long journey and voy- 
age from the wilds of Athabasca to London, In 
order to study the use of astronomical instru- 
ments, so that he might be qualified to make 
scientific observations. Now he would not hear 
of turning back. 

So the discouraged party, animated by Mac- 
kenzie, pushed on, climbed over the dividing 
mountains, and came upon the head-waters of a 
stream flowing westward, the one now called 
Eraser River. After following it for several days, 
they struck off through dense forests, sometimes 
on dizzy trails over snow-clad mountains, until 
they reached a rapid river. On this they em- 
barked in two canoes with several natives, and 
thus reached the ocean — the Pacific I 

Verendrye's dream was realized at last. The 
continent had been spanned from East to West. 

Twelve years later the same thing was done 
within the territory of the United States by Lewis 

320 



NOTE ON THE MANDANS 

and Clark, at the head of an expedition sent out 
by President Jefferson. They spent the winter 
among the Mandan Indians, the interesting people 
with whom the Verendryes had come in contact. 
A note is added in which some information is 
given about them. 



NOTE ON THE MANDANS 

These Indians first became known to white men through 
the expedition of the elder Verendrye. They showed 
themselves hospitable and friendly to him, as they always 
have been to our race, and they aided his sons in their 
efforts to reach the Western Sea. Next we have quite 
full references to them in the journals of Lewis and Clark. 
These explorers were sent out by President Jefferson in 
1803, immediately on the completion of the Louisiana 
Purchase, to get a better knowledge of the northern 
portion of the vast territory recently acquired, with a 
particular view to developing the fur-trade and to opening 
a route to the Pacific. All these ends were accomplished 
with a degree of success that made the enterprise one of 
the greatest achievements in our history. The explorers, 
having ascended the Missouri in their boats, and finding 
themselves, as winter came on, near the Mandan villages, 

321 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

decided to remain there until the spring. Accordingly 
they passed the winter, 1803-4, among these interesting 
tribesmen. It being a part of their prescribed duty to 
keep full journals of all that they experienced or saw, 
they have left extended accounts of the people and their 
customs. 

Thirty-four years later George Catlin, a famous artist 
and student of Indian life, who spent many years in 
traveling among the wild tribes of the West and in 
describing them with pen, pencil, and brush, came 
among the Mandans. He was so much impressed 
with them as a singular and superior people that he re- 
mained among them a considerable time, painted many 
of their men and women, studied and made drawings of 
some of their singular ceremonies, and devoted a large 
part of his two volumes to a highly interesting account 
of what he saw among them. 

Catlin certainly was wholly free from the silly prejudice 
expressed in the familiar saying, " The only good Indian 
is a dead Indian." His two volumes, " The North 
American Indians," furnish " mighty interesting reading." 
As we accompany him in his long journeys by canoe 
and on horseback and read his descriptions of the tribes 
he visited and the warriors and chiefs he learned to know, 
and of whom he has left us pictures, it is a satisfaction to 
feel that we are traveling with a man who looked on the 
Indian as a human being. Sometimes we are inclined 
to suspect that, in the enthusiasm of his artistic nature, 
he idealized his subject and viewed him with a degree of 
sentiment as remote from the truth in one direction as 

322 



NOTE ON THE MANDANS 

was the hostile prejudice of the average white man in the 
other. We know that he either did not see or purposely 
ignored certain aspects of Indian life, notably the physical 
dirt and the moral degradation. 

When he comes to the Mandans, this disposition to 
make heroes of his subjects fairly runs away with him. 
No language is strong enough to do justice to his 
admiration of some of them. We easily let pass such 
phrases as the "wild and gentlemanly Mandans," for 
many observers have reported that there is" a native 
dignity and courtesy about the true Indian. But there 
are other things which make it plain that Catlin, in his 
extravagant admiration, where his Indian friends were 
concerned was incapable of discriminating between the 
noble and the base. Here is an instance : 

A certain chief of the Mandans, Mah-to-toh-pa (the 
Four Bears), was very friendly to Catlin, who painted 
his portrait, and who speaks of him in terms of unbounded 
admiration. He gave his artist friend a handsomely em- 
broidered deerskin shirt on which he had depicted in 
Indian fashion his various achievements. One, of which 
he was especially proud, he recounted at length to Catlin, 
acting it out before him, and he in turn relates it to his 
readers. 

Mah-to-toh-pa had a brother slain — in open fight, let 
us remember — by a Rickaree, who left his lance stick- 
ing in the dead man. Mah-to-toh-pa found the body, 
drew out the lance, and carried it to his village, where 
it was recognized as the property of a famous warrior 
named Won-ga-tap. He kept the bloodstained weapon, 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

vowing that some day he would with it avenge his 
brother's death. Four years passed by, and still he 
nursed his wrath. Then one day he worked himself up 
to a frenzy and went through the village crying that the 
day of vengeance had come. 

Off he started across the prairie alone, with a little 
parched corn in his pouch, went two hundred miles, 
traveling by night and hiding by day, until he reached 
the Rickaree village. Knowing it and the location of 
Won-ga-tap's lodge — which suggests that he had visited 
the place in some friendly relation — he entered at dusk 
and loitered about for a time, and then through rents in 
the covering watched Won-ga-tap smoke his last pipe 
and go to bed by the side of his wife. Then Mah-to- 
toh-pah went in, coolly seated himself by the smouldering 
fire, and, using the privilege of Indian hospitality, helped 
himself to meat that was in a kettle over the embers, and 
ate a hearty meal. 

'' Who is that man who is eating in our lodge ? " 
asked the wife several times. 

" Oh, let him alone. No doubt he is hungry," the 
easy-going Won-ga-tap answered. 

His meal finished, the intruder helped himself to his 
host's pipe, filled and lighted it, and began to smoke. 
When he had finished, he gently pushed the coals together 
with his toes, so that he got a better light and was able 
to discern the outline of his intended victim's body. 
Then he rose softly, plunged his lance into Won-ga-tap's 
heart, snatched off his scalp, and ran away with it and 
with the dripping lance. 

324 



NOTE ON THE MANDANS 

In a moment the Rickaree camp was in an uproar. 
But before pursuers 'were started the assassin was far out 
on the plains. The darkness protected him, he success- 
fully eluded pursuit, returned safely to his home, and 
entered the village, triumphantly exhibiting Won-ga-tap's 
scalp and the fresh blood dried on his lance. 

This story, which Catlin says is attested by white men 
who were in the Mandan village at the time, may stand 
as a notable instance of savage vengefulness and daring, 
cunning and treachery ; but it will scarcely serve to make 
us believe in Catlin's " noble Mandan gentlemen," of 
whom he puts forward Mah-to-toh-pa as a conspicuous 
example. 

When we read Lewis and Clark's account of the Man- 
dans, we are in quite another atmosphere, not that of 
romance but of simple reality. They spent several months 
among them, on the friendliest terms, and they speak kindly 
of them, but do not disguise the brutality of savage life. 
Between these two authorities we have ample informa- 
tion, from opposite points of view. 

The first thing that would impress a visitor with the 
fact that he had come among a peculiar people, is the 
character of their dwellings, absolutely unlike any used 
by any other tribe, either of the woods or plains, except 
their near neighbors and friends, the Minitarees. The 
lodge is a circular structure, set in an excavation about 
two feet deep. A framework of stout posts supports a 
roof of poles converging toward the centre, where an 
opening is left for the entrance of light and the escape of 
smoke. On these poles brush is spread, and over this 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

earth is laid to the depth of about two feet. In this 
earth grass grows abundantly, and thus a Mandan village 
presents the appearance of an assemblage of green mounds. 

Lewis and Clark were much impressed with the fear- 
lessness of the Mandan women in crossing the Missouri, 
even when it was quite rough, in a tub-like boat consist- 
ing of a single bufFalo-hide stretched under a frame-work 
of wicker.^ Catlin saw the same boat in use, and it af- 
forded him confirmation for a peculiar theory which he 
advanced. 

He was much surprised at the light complexion of the 
Mandans generally and at the fact that he actually saw 
some blue eyes and gray eyes among them and some 
whitish hair. These circumstances seemed to him to 
point clearly to an admixture of European blood. He 
wrote at a time when fanciful theories about the native 
Americans were much in vogue. He had read some- 
where that a Welsh prince, Madoc, more than two hun- 
dred years before the time of Columbus, sailed away from 
his country with ten ships. By some unexplained pro- 
cess, he traced him to America. Then he supposed 
him to ascend the Mississippi as far as the mouth of the 
Ohio and there to found a colony. This, being entirely 
cut ofF from communication with the mother country, 
was compelled to ally itself with the nearest Indians and 
took wives among them. From these unions sprang a 
mixed race, the Mandans, who eventually formed a 

^ We may remember that La Salle and his followers found Indians 
on the plains of Texas crossing rivers in boats made of bufFalo-hide. 

326 



NOTE ON THE MANDANS 

separate tribe and were gradually driven up the Missouri 
to the point where he found them. 

There is not any doubt of the large admixture of 
European blood among the Mandans, and it is easily 
accounted for. Catlin does not seem to have known of 
any white visitors before Lewis and Clark. But we 
have seen that the Verendryes reached these people a 
full hundred years before Catlin's day. There is every 
reason for believing that, from that time, white hunters 
and traders never ceased to visit them. These Indians 
being, from the first, very hospitable and friendly, their 
villages were favorite resorts for fur-traders, who took up 
their abode among them for several years at a time and 
married there. One can easily see that, in the course 
of a hundred years, there would be several generations 
of mixed blood, and that, through inter-marriages, there 
would probably be few families whose color would not 
be lighter in consequence. The persons whose peculiar 
whitish hair Catlin noticed, undoubtedly were albinos^ a 
class of persons in whom the natural coloring of the hair 
is wanting and the eyes are red or pink. 

The Mandans probably are nothing more than an 
interesting tribe of Indians who, through long intermin- 
gling with the white race, have undergone considerable 
lightening of their original color. 

A year after Catlin's visit his Mandan friends experi- 
enced a frightful calamity. A trading steamboat brought 
the small-pox to them, and, as happened in the case of 
many other tribes in the West, its ravages were fearful. 
Not being protected by vaccination, and knowing nothing 

2>V 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

of the treatment of the disease, the poor creatures died 
horribly. Not a few, in the height of their fever, threw 
themselves into the Missouri and so found a quicker and 
easier death. Nearly the whole tribe perished. 

The remnant, along with that of their long-time friends 
and neighbors, the Minitarees, may be found to-day at 
Fort Berthold, in North Dakota. 



328 



BOOKS FOR REFERENCE 

The Origin of the American aborigines is treated 
briefly by Dr. John Fiske in " The Discovery of 
America," Chapter I, and at great length and with wide 
research by Mr. E. J. Payne in his " History of the 
New World Called America." 

Their Distribution, also sketched by Dr. Fiske, is 
satisfactorily detailed by Dr. D. G. Brinton in his 
" Races and Peoples." 

Those who may wish to study Indian Social Life in 
its primitive conditions will do well to read the work of 
Baron de Lahontan, recently edited by Dr. R. G. 
Thwaites. He was among the earliest writers on aborig- 
inal affairs, and his " New Voyages to North America " 
gives the results of travel and observation about the 
years 1683-1701. "Three Years' Travels through 
North America," by Jonathan Carver, relates an inter- 
esting experience among the Indians between the years 
1766 and 1768. Some of his general remarks, however, 
are drawn from the preceding writer. An inexhaustible 
store of information on this subject is found in the 
famous "Jesuit Relations," which have been edited, in 
an English translation, by Dr. Thwaites. For ordinary 
readers, however, the very interesting treatment by Dr. 
Fiske, in the chapter already cited, and especially by 



FRENCH PATHFINDERS 

Mr. Francis Parkman, in the Introduction to his " The 
Jesuits in North America," will amply suffice. 

In the same chapters will be found a satisfactory 
account of the Iroquois League. Students, however, 
who may wish to go to the fountain-head are referred to 
Mr. Lewis Morgan, whose work, '' The League of the 
Iroquois," is the accepted authority. 

As to Cartier, Ribaut, Laudonniere, Champlain, and 
La Salle, the writer has not gained any new light by 
referring to the original documents, and has drawn his 
material chiefly from that great master, Parkman, by 
whom the first four are treated in his " Pioneers of 
France in the New World," and the last-named in his 
'' La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West." 

The story of the Jesuit missionaries runs through 
what is practically a whole library, the *' Jesuit Rela- 
tions." Parkman, in a volume devoted to setting forth 
the nobler aspects of their work, " The Jesuits in North 
America," does ample justice to the heroism of the best 
of these pioneers. 

For Radisson the only authority is himself. His 
" Voyage," not published until after it had lain in manu- 
script two hundred and twenty-five years, and of which 
but two hundred and fifty copies are in existence, is 
one of the quaintest of books and " mighty interesting 
reading." 

The story of Joliet and Marquette's exploration is 
told most interestingly by Dr. Thwaites, in his *' Father 
Marquette," and by Parkman, in his " La Salle and the 
Discovery of the Great West." The observations of 



BOOKS FOR REFERENCE 

Jonathan Carver, who went over a part of their route 
about one hundred years later, throw much interesting 
light on some of their experiences. 

Father Hennepin receives ample justice from Park- 
man in his account of the opening of the Great West. 
Readers, however, who may desire a first-hand acquaint- 
ance with the erratic friar will find curious, much of 
it stolen, reading in his "New Discovery in North 
America," his " Description of Louisiana," and his 
" Curious Voyage." 

In Dr. Thwaites's " Rocky Mountain Exploration " 
may be read the story of the heroic Verendryes and 
dauntless Alexander Mackenzie. 



331 



INDEX 



INDEX 

Abnakis, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Acadia, old name for Nova Scotia and adjacent region, 106. 

AccAU, a companion of Father Hennepin in exploration, 293. 

AcoMANS, a tribe of Pueblo Indians, 10. 

Alexander the Great, story of fountain of immortality, 

78, note. 
Algonquins, one of the great divisions of the Indian race, 4 ; 

its range and its families, 7 ; close allies of the French, 114 ; 

shiftless and improvident, often relieved by them, 124 ; those 

of Massachusetts thriftier, 109, note. 
Allouez, Father, noted missionary ; one of his speeches, 147. 
Annapolis, originally Port Royal; re-named for Queen Anne, iii. 
Apaches, an offshoot of Athapascan stock, 7. 
Appalachee, probably southwestern Georgia ; supposed to be 

rich in gold, 82. 
AssiCKMACK, Indian name for whitefish, 206 ; much prized, 206, 

note. 
Athapascans, a native stock ; one of the larger divisions of 

Indian race, 7. 
Aubry, Nicholas, his perilous adventure, 106. 
Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, his treachery punished, 70. 

Basques, early activity of, on northern coasts of America, 53; re- 
sist the royal monopoly of fur-trade, 122. 

Bayagoulas, the, a tribe on the Mississippi, 281. 

Bering Sea, probably once dry land, 3. 

Bienville, Jean Baptiste LeMoyne de, comes to Louisiana, 
280 } founds New Orleans, 283 ; adversity in closing years, 
285. 

335 



INDEX 

BiLOXi, site of first French settlement on Gulf of Mexico, 282. 

BiMiNl, fabled fountain of immortality, 78. 

BoiSRONDET, SiEUR DE, narrow escape from starvation, 247. 

Brant Rock, Champlain's stop there, 109. 

Brebeuf, Father, an early French missionary, 152. 

Bretons, the, early frequented the Newfoundland fisheries, 54. 

Brule, Etienne, Champlain's interpreter, 133. 

Calumet, or peace-pipe, old description of, 178, note. 
Cap Blanc, name which Champlain gave to Cape Cod, no. 
Cap Rouge, fortified by Cartier ; seat of Roberval's settlement, 

63. 

Cartier, Jacques, his first voyage, 54 ; his duplicity, 55 ; be- 
lieved that he had found sea-route to India, 56 ; in second voy- 
age explored the St. Lawrence, 57; names Mont Royal (later 
Montreal), 60 ; his fearful experience, 61 ; his treachery, 62 ; 
his last voyage futile, 62. 

Carver, Jonathan, early traveler, describes remains of ancient 
fortification, 301, note ; and Falls of St. Anthony, 306, note. 

Cat Island (lie des Chats), origin of name, 281. 

Catlin, George, 322 ; his theory of the origin of the Mandans, 
326. 

Cavelier, Robert, Sieur de La Salle. See La Salle. 

Cayugas, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9. 

Cenis Indians, branch of Caddo (Pawnee) family, visited by 
La Salle, 269. 

Chaleur, Bay of, name how originating, 54. 

Champlain, Samuel de, his birth, 104; takes part in the Reli- 
gious Wars in France, 1 04 ; sails to the West Indies, 1 04 ; 
suggests a Panama Canal, 105 ; sails for Canada, 105 ; con- 
ceives a plan of colonization, 105 ; makes a settlement at mouth 
of St. Croix River, 107 ; cniel winter, 108 ; visits and names 
Mt. Desert, 108 ; explores New England coast, 108 ; welcomed 
by natives in Plymouth Harbor, 109 ; trouble with Indians at 
Nausett, no ; transfers settlement to Port Royal, no ; second 
voyage to New France, 119; seeks sea-route to China, 119; 



INDEX 

explores the St. Lawrence, 120 ; seeks to establish stronghold 
on the inland waters, 120 ; eager to promote conversion of the 
Indians, 120 ; overcomes resistance of Basques to fur-trade 
monopoly, 123 ; quells mutiny of his men, 124; great suffer- 
ing in first winter at Quebec, 1 24 ; goes with war-party of Al- 
gonquins into Iroquois country, 125 ; hostile encounter on 
Lake Champlain, 128 ; disastrous results of his success, 130 ; 
his second fight with Iroquois, 131 ; founds Montreal, 133 ; 
second raid into Iroquois country, 133; names Lake Huron, 134; 
Iroquois palisaded town, 136 ; his unsuccessful attack on, 137 ; 
wounded, 138; lost in the woods, 140 ; returns to Quebec, 
142 ; a prisoner at London, 143 ; dies, 143. 

Charlevoix, Father, sent out to explore route to Pacific, 314. 

Chatham Harbor, scene of Champlain' s fight with Indians, 111. 

Chicago, La Salle near the site of, 236. 

Chickasaws, a branch of the Maskoki family, 181; hostile to the 
French, 253, note. 

Chicora, native name of coast region of South Carolina, 69. 

Chiefs, Indian, how chosen, 34. 

Chippeways, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Choctaws, a Maskoki tribe, 9, who sided with the French, 253, 
note. 

Christinos, or Crees, an Indian tribe on Lake Superior, 210. 

Clan, a group of families of common blood, 20. 

CoLiGNY, Admiral, sends a second expedition to Florida, 77. 

Columbia and Sacramento Valleys, Indians inhabiting, lowest 
specimens of the race, 10. 

Comanches, Indian tribe of Shoshonee stock, 10 ; visited by La 
Salle, 269 ; their fine horsemanship, 270 ; jockeying, 270, note. 

Conestogas, a Huron-Iroquois tribe, 9. 

Copper, in large quantities, seen by Radisson, 207. 

COROAS, Indian tribe on the Lower Mississippi, attack La Salle, 256. 

Council, An Indian, how conducted, 32. 

CouREURS DE BOis, thcir Origin and influence, 114 ; their mode of 
life, 189. 

337« 



INDEX 

Couture, a companion of Father Jogues, 156. 
Creeks, a Maskoki tribe, 9. 

Dagonoweda, a sachem of the Onondagas, who proposed union, %t. 

Dakota, or Sioux, the, a native stock ; its range, 10. 

Daniel, Father, an early French missionary, 15Z. 

Davost, Father, an early French missionary, 15a. 

Des Plaines River, route used by Joliet and Marquette in return- 
ing, 183 ; followed by La Salle, 245. 

Distribution of various Indian tribal families, 7. 

Divination by Indian sorcerer, 126. 

Du Gay, a companion of Father Hennepin in exploration, 293. 

Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon, noted leader of coureurs, 190 ; 
his testimony to having found Hennepin among the Sioux, 297. 

Duluth, City of, for whom named, 190. 

Dutch Protestants try to effect the release of Father Jogues, 1595 
ransom him and send him to Europe, 160, 

Emperor, none in North America, 15. 

Eries, a Huron-Iroquois tribe, 8. 

Eskimo, descendants, perhaps, of ancient "Cave-men," 5. 

Europeans, their early mistakes as to Indian life, 16. 

Family, the, the root of all society, 18; the family-tie the central 
principle of Indian social life, 20. 

Filles a la cassette sent out to New Orleans by Louis the Four- 
teenth, 284. 

Fisheries, Newfoundland, early attracted European visitors, 53. 

FisKE, The late Dr. John, his theory about the Eskimo, 6. 

Five Nations, the, what tribes constituted, 9 ; only friends of 
the English, 114. 

Florida, as understood by Spaniards ; extent, 90. 

Fort Caroline, the fort built by Laudonniere on the St. John's, 82; 
great misery through want and sickness, 86 ; distress relieved 
by coming of Ribaut, 89 ; massacre, 90 et seq. 

Fort Crevecceur built, 240; origin of name, 240 ; destroyed, 242. 

338 



INDEX 

Fort Frontenac (on site of Kingston) built, 228 ; turned over 

to La Salle, 229. 
Fort Miami, at mouth of St. Joseph River, 245, 256. 
Fort Orange, Dutch settlement on site of Albany, 159. 
Fort Rosalie, on the Lower Mississippi ; slaughter at, 253, note. 
Fort St. Louis, at Lavaca, Texas, built, 266. 
Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois, built, 256. 
France desirous of christianizing the natives, 120. 
French attitude to Indians 5 how necessarily different from the 

Spanish, 47. 
Frenchmen, what they achieved in North and Northwest, 45 ; 

their material object. Furs, 46 ; their conduct contrasted with 

Spaniards', 46. 
Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count of, comes to Canada, 227 ; 

makes alliance with La Salle, 227 ; opposed by fur-traders, 228 j 

recalled, 255. 
FuNDY, Bay of, how name originated, no. 
Fur-traders classified, 188. 
Furs, great object of French commercial activity, 188. 

Gaspe, French sovereignty first asserted at, 55. 

GoupiL, a companion of Father Jogues ; his death, 158. 

Gourgues, Dominique de, takes ample vengeance on the Spaniards 
at Fort Caroline, 96. 

Government, Indian, what it was like, 29. 

Grand Council of Iroquois League, how composed, 31. 

"Griffin," the, first vessel on the Upper Lakes, 233. 

Groseillers, Sieur des, title assumed by Medard Chouart, co- 
explorer with Radisson of Lake Superior, 199. For rest, see 
Radisson. 

Guns sold to Iroquois by Dutch, 131. 

Hakluyt, Richard, a chronicler of old explorations, 86. 
Hawkins, Sir John, founder of English African slave-trade, re- 
lieves the distressed Frenchmen, 88. 
Helpfulness, Mutual, characteristic of Indian life, .41. 

339 



INDEX 

Hennepin, Father Louis, comes to Canada, 290 ; describes 
Niagara Falls, 291 ; describes a council of Senecas, 292 ; is 
sent to explore the Upper Mississippi, 293 ; his fraud, 294 ; 
captured by Sioux, 298 ; his experiences among the Sioux, 298 
et seq ; sees and names Falls of St. Anthony, 306 ; rescued by 
Du Lhut, 308. 

Hiawatha inspires the union of Iroquois tribes, 27. 

Hiawatha, Poem of, recalled by Radisson's descriptions, 207, 
210, 215. 

Hochelaga, Indian name for site of Montreal, 105. 

Household life of Indians based on community-idea, 38 j very 
sociable, 40. 

Houses, Indian, how built and arranged, 37. 

Hudson Bay Fur Company, its organization by whom suggested, 
191. 

Huron-Iroquois, a native stock ; its tribes, 8. 

Huron Indians, more advanced than Algonquins, 134; Cham- 
plain visits their country, 134. 

Iberville, Pierre LeMoyne de, comes to Louisiana, 280. 

Ile des Chats (Cat Island), why so called, 281. 

Illinois Indians, branch of Algonquin Family, harassed by Iro- 
quois and Sioux, 238, 244 ^/ seq. 

Indians, probable origin of, 3 ; of one blood, 4. 

Iroquois, one of the great divisions of the Indian race, 4 ; Iroquois 
League, 27 ^/ seq. j why relentless towards Hurons and Eries, 28. 

"Jesuit Relations," Value of, as historical material, 149. 
Jesuits, Great activity of, in early history of Canada, 149 ; their 

policy to establish missions, 151. 
JOGUES, Father, Jesuit missionary, discovers Lake George, 149 ; 

his heroism, 158; his pathetic end, 164. 
JOLiET, Louis, 171 ; sent with Father Marquette to explore the 

Mississippi, 172 ; their route, 172 et seq. ; meet with friendly 

Illinois, 177 5 receive gift of peace-pipe, 178 j pass Missouri 



INDEX 

and Ohio Rivers, 180; in danger, above mouth of Arkansas 
River, 181; saved by exhibiting peace-pipe, 1 8 1 j start on re- 
turn voyage, 182 ; what they accomplished, 183 ; Joliet's mis- 
fortune, 184; Marquette's death, 184. 
JouTEL, a lieutenant of La Salle, in command of fort, 267. 

Kankakee River, route followed by La Salle, 237. 

Kaskaskia, famous village of the Illinois, visited by Joliet and 

Marquette, 183. 
Keokuk, site of, near place where Joliet and Marquette met 

friendly Illinois, 179. 
Keweenaw Point, its wealth in copper, 210. 
KiCKAPOOs, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 
King, none in North America, 15. 
*«KiNG Philip," Mistake as to, 15. 
Kingston, Ontario, Fort Frontenac near the site of, 228. 

La Barre, successor of Frontenac as Governor of Canada, hostile 
to La Salle, 257. 

La Chine, how name originated, 226. 

Lake Champlain discovered by Champlain, 127. 

Lake George, route through, the Indian thoroughfare, 127, note. 

Lake Nipissing, on the Ottawa River route, 133. 

Lake Pepin, for whom called, 301 j remains of ancient fortification 
near, 301, note. 

Lake Simcoe, on route of Hurons to Iroquois country, 135. 

Lake Superior explored by Radisson and Groseillers, 201 et seq. 

La Salle, Sieur de, early connection with the Jesuits, 225 ; comes 
to Canada, 225 ; goes exploring, 226 ; becomes a supporter of 
Frontenac, 227 ; goes to France and wins the King, 228 ; in 
command of Fort Frontenac, 229 ; his ambition, 229 ; visits 
France and procures extraordinary commission, 230 ; begins his 
great exploration, 231; builds stronghold at mouth of Niagara 
River, 232 ; builds first vessel launched on Upper Lakes, 233 ; 
sails on his great enterprise, 234 j the "Griffin," 235 ; goes in 
canoes down Illinois River, 238 ; allies himself with the Illinois, 



INDEX 

239 ; builds Fort Crevecoeur, 240; reaches the Mississippi, 
245 ; starts for the Gulf of Mexico, 250 ; adventures by the 
way, 251 et jeq. ; reaches the Gulf, 254 ; bestows the name 
Louisiana, 254 ; hardships and hostility on return voyage, 255 ; 
goes to France, 257 ; appears on coast of Texas, 261; his pur- 
pose, 262; his difficulties and his dilemma, 263 et seq. ; mistake 
of his pUots, 264 ; loss of his vessels, 264, 265 ; loss of men 
by sickness and Indians, 2665 builds fort at Lavaca, 266 ; 
vainly seeks the Mississippi, 266 et seq. j sets out for Canada, 
272 ; assassinated, 275 5 what he had achieved, 275 ; by whom 
his plan was carried out, 278 et seq. 

Laudonniere, Rene de, an officer under Ribaut, 68 ; goes in 
command of a second expedition to Florida, 77 ; seizes Outina, 
86 ; releases him, 87 ; declines proposal of Hawkins to carry 
him and his men home, 88 j buys a vessel from him, 89 ; es- 
capes the massacre, 94. 

Lavaca, Texas, site of La Salle's fort, 266. 

Le Caron, friar, discoverer of Lake Huron, 133, 149. 

Le Jeune, an early French missionary, winter's experience with 
hunting-party of Algonquins, 150. 

Lenape, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Lery, Baron de, an early adventurer, left cattle on Sable Island, 
103. 

Lewis and Clark sent out to explore route to Pacific, 321 ; winter 
among Mandans, 321, note. 

Lipans, an offshoot of Athapascan stock, 7. 

Long House, the, Indian name of Iroquois League, 28. 

Louisiana, the name given by La Salle, 254. 

Mackenzie, Alexander, discovers Mackenzie River, 318; 
reaches the Pacific, 320. 

Mandans, Indian tribe, first visited by Verendrye, 317 ; by Lewis 
and Clark, 321, note ; by George Catlln, 322 ; his enthusiasm 
about them, 323 ; his peculiar theory of their origin, 326 ; their 
singular dwellings, 325 $ story of a Mandan's revenge, 323. 



INDEX 

Manhattan Island first occupied by Dutch as a trading-post, 
130, note. 

Manitou, Indian for "spirit," 126. 

Marquette, Father, missionary and explorer. See Joliet. 

Marriage must not be between two persons of same clan, 22. 

Mascoutins, western Algonquins, 174. 

Maskoki, a native stock ; its tribes and its range, 9. 

Massacre Island (Dauphin Island), why so called, 280. 

Matagorda Bay, Texas, scene of La Salle's landing, 261. 

Matanzas Inlet, French Huguenots butchered there by Me- 
nendez, 95. 

Maundeville, Sir John, story of fountain of immortality, 
78, note. 

May, River of, now called the St. John's, 67. 

"Medicine," in what sense the word used, 138, note. 

Membre, Father, accompanies La Salle down the Mississippi, 251 ; 
his description of the Arkansas Indians, 251. 

Menendez, Pedro, de Avtles, appointed Spanish Governor of 
Florida, 83 ; attacks Ribaut's vessels off the St. John's, 89 j 
founds St. Augustine, 90; surprises Fort Caroline, 92 ; massa- 
cres the garrison, 93, and shipwrecked crews of Ribaut's 
vessels, 94. 

MiAMis, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Michillimackinac, trading-post and mission-station, 235. 

MiCMACS, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

MiLLE Lacs, a lake in Minnesota, 301. 

Milwaukee, La Salle near the site of, 236. 

Missionaries, Roman Catholic, unselfish devotion of, 147 et seq. 

Mississippi River, western boundary' of Maskoki group, 9. 

Missouri River, Mouth of, first seen by Joliet and Marquette, i 80. 

M1TCHIGAME.4.S, a branch of the Maskoki family, 181. 

Mobile settled, 283 ; first capital of Louisiana, 283. 

Mohawks, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9. 

MOHEGANS, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Monopoly of fur-trade, evils of, 122. 



INDEX 

" MoxTEzuMA, Emperor," Mistake as to, 15. 
Montreal founded by Champlaln, 133. 
MoNTS, SiEUR DE, an associate of Charaplain, 106. 
MoQUis, a tribe of Pueblo Indians, 10. 
MusKHOGEEs (same as Creeks), a Maskoki tribe, 9. 

Nanticokes, an v^gonquin tribe, 7. 

Narragan'setts, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Natchez Indians visited by La Salle, 252 ; described by Father 
Gravier, 253, note; their subsequent history, 253, note. 

Nausett Harbor, Champlain's trouble there with Indians, no. 

Navajoes, an offshoot of Athapascan stock, 7. 

New Biscay, northern province of Mexico, 262. 

New France, Father of, tide of Samuel de Champlain, 104. 

New Orleans founded, 283 ; early struggles, 285. 

Niagara Falls described by Father Hennepin, 232. 

Nicollet, Jean, ambassador to Winnebagoes, 169 ; reaches Wis- 
consin River, 171. 

Ohio River, Mouth of, first seen by Joliet and Marquette, iSc 

Oneidas, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9. 

Onondagas, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9 ; in what sense lead- 
ing tribe, 3 1 . 

Onontio, Indian name for French Governor, 177. 

Orators, Indian, how trained, 33. 

Ottawa River, Indian route followed by Champlain, 133. 

Ottigny, a lieutenant under Laudonniere, 77. 

OuTiNA, an Indian chief, dupes the Frenchmen into fighdng his 
batdes, 85. 

Pacific, the, reached by northern route, 320. 

Passamaquoddies, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Pawnees, a native stock j its range, 10. 

Peoria, the first habitadon of white men in Illinois near the site 

of, 241. 
Pequots, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

344 



INDEX 

Phratry, a group of clans, 23. 

"Pictured Rocks," the, described by Radisson, 208. 

PiERRiA, Albert de, left in command of the fort at Port Royal, 
71 ; murdered by his own men, 73, 

Pocahontas, not a princess, 16. 

Pontgrave, an associate of Champlain, 105. 

Port Royal, Nova Scotia, settled, 108 ; abandoned, 115. 

Port Royal, South Carolina, named by Ribaut, 69. 

Port St. Louis, name which Champlain gave to site of Ply- 
mouth, 109. 

Portage, City of, site described by Jonathan Carver, 174, note. 

Pottawattamies, a friendly Algonquin tribe, 248. 

Powhatans, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Pueblo Indians, the, a native stock; some of its tribes, 10. 

Quebec (Indian, Kebec, "The Narrows"), founded by Cham- 
plain, 123; slow growth of, 142. 

Quinipissas, Indian tribe above site of New Orleans, attack La 
Salle, 256. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, comes to Canada, 191 ; his adventure 
and capture, 191; his escape and re-capture, 196; his second 
escape, 198; why he is not better known, 200 ; starts for the 
Upper Lakes, 201 ; perilous adventures by the way, 201 ; 
enters Lake Superior, 206 ; describes the "Pictured Rocks," 
208 ; builds a fort on Lake Superior, 211 ; describes a famine, 
212 ; witnesses interesting games, 218 ; brings to Montreal an 
enormous canoe-fleet loaded with skins, 221 ; offers his services 
to the English King, 221. 

Ribaut, Captain Jean, his first expedition to America, 67 ; 
comes, with large colony, to Fort Caroline, 89 ; goes with his 
whole force to attack Menendez, at St. Augustine, 90 ; is 
overtaken by hurricane, driven down the coast and wrecked, 
91 ; crews massacred, ^i et seq. 

Ribourde, Father, murdered, 247. 

345 



INDEX 

Richelieu or Sorel River, route followed by Champlaln, 125, 
RoBERVAL, SiEUR DE, vainly attempts to colonize Canada, 63. 
Roche, Marouis de la, story of his disastrous venture, 102. 
Rocky Mountains, the, western boundary of Dakota-Sioux, 10 ; 
discovered, 31S. 

Sable Island, southeast of Nova Scotia, 102. 

Sacs and Foxes, Algonquin tribes, 7 ; slaughter of, 173. 

Sachems, who they were, 31. 

St. Anthony, Falls of, discovered and named, 306, 

St. Augustine founded, 90. 

St. Croix River, Mouth of, place of Champlain's first settle- 
ment, ia7. 

St. John's Bluff, site of first fort on the St. John's River, 79. 

St. Lawrence, Gulf and River, why so named, 57. 

Sault Ste. Marie, furthest western post of French missionaries, 
45; a missionary's description of, 206, note. 

Savannah River, southern boundary of Algonquins, 7. 

SeminoleSj a Maskoki tribe, 9. 

Senecas, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9. 

Seven Cities of Cibola, 69, note. 

Shawnees, an Algonquin tribe, 7. 

Shoshonees, a native stock ; its range, 10. 

Six Nations, the, what tribes included, 9. 

St.^dacone, Indian village, near site of Quebec, 58. 

<' Starved Rock," probable site of La Salle's Fort St. Louis, 256. 

Susquehannocks, a Huron-Iroquois tribe, 9. 

Tadoussac, early post, well situated for fur-trade, 121. 
Taensas Indians visited by La Salle, 251 ; described, 253, note. 
Thimagoas, an Indian tribe in Florida, 80. 
Three Rivers, one of earliest French posts on the St. Lawrence, 

191. 
Thwaites, Dr. Reuben Gold, authority on colonial history, 

his judgment as to Radisson, Preface ; recites tradition of 

slaughter of Sacs and Foxes, 173. 



INDEX 

ToNTY, Henri de, La Salle's faithful lieutenant, 237; trying 
experiences in the Illinois country, 245 et seq. ; his efforts to 
rescue La Salle and his men, 276 et seq. 

Totem, a clan-symbol used by Indians, 21. 

Trent River, on route of Hurons to Iroquois country, 135. 

Tribe, the, an aggregation based on the family-tie, 23 ; in some 
aspects an ideal republic, 36. 

TusCARORAS, a tribe of the Iroquois League, 9. 

Vasseur, a lieutenant under Laudonniere, 80. 

Verendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la, his early 
experiences, 314; his efforts to reach the Pacific, 315; estab- 
lishes a chain of posts, 316 j disappointed of reaching the 
Pacific, 317. 

Verendrye, Pierre de la, son of former, discovers the Rocky 
Mountains, 318. 

" Vermilion Sea," old name for Gulf of California, 175. 

Vermilion River, Rock at mouth of, probable site of La Salle's 
Fort St. Louis, 256. 

"Virginia Sea," old name for the Atlantic, 175. 

Voyageurs, who they were, their influence, 114. 

Wild Rice, the, or Menomonie, Indians, an Algonquin branch, 

welcome Joliet and Marquette, 172. 
Winnebagoes, branch of the Dakotas or Sioux, 170. 

Yazoos, Indian tribe, hostile to the French, 253, note. 

ZuNis, a tribe of Pueblo Indians, 10. 



347 



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